Trial begins for Danny Masterson, ‘That ’70s Present’ actor charged with rape

LOS ANGELES — A prosecutor described rape allegations by three ladies Tuesday towards “That ’70s Present” actor Danny Masterson from twenty years in the past that contained a number of the identical disturbing components.

Two ladies turned woozy or handed out after a pair drinks and had been tossed in his sizzling tub, Deputy District Lawyer Reinhold Mueller mentioned in his opening assertion in Masterson’s trial. One in all them mentioned he dragged her to his mattress the place she regained consciousness to seek out him having intercourse along with her. A 3rd girl, an ex-girlfriend, mentioned she woke as much as discover him on prime of her.

Masterson’s lawyer mentioned the rationale the allegations had a lot in frequent is that the alleged victims violated a detective’s warning to not converse with one another and had “cross-pollinated” their accounts and undermined their credibility.

“Should you converse to one another you’ll contaminate this case,” they had been informed, protection lawyer Phillip Cohen mentioned in Los Angeles Superior Courtroom. “Talking to one another and different witnesses is deadly to a case.”

Masterson, 46, has pleaded not responsible to a few counts of forcible rape between 2001 and 2003 at his Hollywood residence, which functioned as a social hub when he was on the peak of his fame.

Cohen urged the jurors to not take into account Masterson’s affiliation with the Church of Scientology and its relationship to the case whereas Mueller mentioned that it helped clarify why the ladies — all former members of the church — waited so lengthy to report the incidents.

Two of the alleged victims first went to the church to report what occurred to them and had been informed it wasn’t rape and that reporting it to authorities or telling others about it could finish with them being ostracized by their closest associates and even members of the family.

“You primarily turn into an enemy of the church,” Mueller mentioned. “You lose all of it.”

Cohen mentioned the case had nothing to do with the faith and he repeatedly objected when it was introduced up.

Superior Courtroom Choose Charlaine F. Olmedo sternly reminded the attorneys that Scientology wouldn’t dominate the trial.

The trial’s witness checklist is stuffed with members and former members of the church, which has a robust presence in Los Angeles and has counted many well-known figures amongst its members. The checklist contains former member Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley and former spouse of Michael Jackson, a pal of one of many alleged victims.

One of many ladies had been Masterson’s longtime girlfriend. One other was finest associates along with his private assistant, and the third, an actress, was a more moderen acquaintance.

The pal of his assistant filed a police report as a result of she was sad with the way in which the Scientology ethics board dealt with her criticism. No expenses had been introduced on the time.

In 2016, she related and shared tales with the ex-girlfriend who is among the accusers. Every filed a police report that yr. Masterson’s former girlfriend mentioned she did so after telling her story to her husband, who helped her perceive she had been raped. The third girl went to police in 2017.

At a preliminary listening to final yr, protection attorneys advised consensual intercourse was retroactively reframed as rape, and mentioned the age of the incidents made correct reminiscences not possible.

If convicted, Masterson may withstand 45 years in jail.

The Related Press doesn’t usually identify individuals who say they had been victims of sexual abuse until they arrive ahead publicly.

Masterson was one of many first Hollywood figures to be prosecuted within the #MeToo period. His is one in all a number of high-profile sexual assault circumstances which have gone to trial round the fifth anniversary of the reporting of accusations towards Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, which reworked the #MeToo motion into a global reckoning.

Weinstein’s second rape and sexual assault trial — he’s already been convicted in New York — is going on concurrently, simply down the corridor from Masterson’s. In New York, civil trials have begun for actor Kevin Spacey and for screenwriter and director Paul Haggis, who’re each being sued for sexual assault.

Haggis is himself a Scientology dissident, and the decide in that case is permitting him to argue that the church is behind the allegations towards him.

From 1998 till 2006, Masterson starred as Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Present,” which made stars of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace and is getting an upcoming Netflix reboot with “That ’90s Present.”

Masterson had reunited with Kutcher on the Netflix comedy “The Ranch” however was written off the present when an LAPD investigation was revealed in December 2017.