LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge declared a miscarriage of justice Wednesday after jurors said they were in a helpless stalemate in the trial of ‘That ’70s Show’ actor Danny Masterson.was charged with three counts of rape.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo ordered jurors to rest for Thanksgiving week on Nov. 18 to continue deliberations. Scientology played a supporting role.
Masterson, 46, was charged with raping three women, including his ex-girlfriend, at his Hollywood Hills home from 2001 to 2003. All three women were members of the church at the time, and Masterson is still a member today.
After asking if there was anything the court could do to move closer to a unanimous verdict, Judge Charlaine Olmed declared, “We’ve found the jury to be hopelessly stuck.” A March date has been set for the retrial.
The jurors, who voted seven times on Tuesday and Wednesday, were unable to reach agreement on any of the three points.
The jury president said that two jurors voted guilty on the first count, four jurors voted guilty on the second count, and four jurors voted guilty on the third count. He said there were only five judges.
the jury was forced to start deliberations from scratch Monday the two had to be laid off because they contracted COVID-19. They deliberated him for two days, but still did not reach a verdict.
The result was a serious setback for prosecutors, and the three women sought long-awaited justice.
The proceedings come amid a flurry of #MeToo cases on both coasts, including Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial. Just down the Masterson hallway.In New York, Kevin Spacey won over sexual misconduct In a lawsuit filed by actor Anthony Rapp in New York, a jury ordered director and screenwriter Paul Haggis to pay $10 million. Then there is the civil lawsuit.
But in the Masterson trial, as in the Haggis trial, the influence of #MeToo was overshadowed by the specter of Scientology, even though the judge argued that the church would not be the de facto defendant. It was dropped.
The women, all called Jane Douss and former members of the church, said they were threatened, harassed and stalked after Masterson was indicted. I have repeated my claim.
Masterson’s attorney, Philip Cohen, said the church was mentioned 700 times during the trial, which he said was an excuse for not filing credible lawsuits against the prominent Scientologist Masterson. claimed.
But Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said it took 20 years to reach a trial because the church tried to silence the women.
Masterson did not testify. His attorney did not provide testimony for the defense, instead focusing on the inconsistencies in the accounts of the three accusers, who changed their stories over time and accused each other before going to the police. He said he had spoken to
“The key to this case is not when they reported it,” Cohen said in closing arguments. “That’s what they said when they reported it. What they said after they reported it. And what they said at trial.”
Mueller argued that Masterson was someone “‘no’ never meant ‘no’,” as evidenced by the raw and emotional testimony of three accusers.
The two women were offered drinks by Masterson, and were left limp and passed out before being violently raped. rice field.
An ex-girlfriend said she woke up to find Masterson having sex with her without her consent. He said that
Cohen told the jury that Masterson could be acquitted if it determined that Masterson “actually reasonably believed” that the woman consented to sex. Arguing that no one would believe that the acts committed were consensual, he told jurors that a woman repeatedly told him “no” and tried to get out from under him by pulling her hair. reminded me.
Mueller told jurors not to be misled by the defense’s speculation, saying that the inconsistencies in the victim’s testimony were a sign of believability, as opposed to the scripted accounts.
The indictment dates from 1998 to 2006, when Masterson was at the height of his fame, starring as Stephen Hyde on Fox’s That ’70s Show. The show has made stars Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace, and is set for his Netflix reboot with “That ’90s Show.”
Masterson had reunited with Kutcher on the Netflix comedy The Lunch, but was pulled from the show in December 2017 when an investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department came to light.