LOS ANGELES — The judge in Danny Masterson’s rape trial declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors said they were unable to reach a decision on the actor’s innocence or guilt.
The jury deadlocked after hearing weeks of testimony from three women who accused Masterson of raping them and others who corroborated their accounts. In failing to reach a decision, the Los Angeles County Superior Court panel left unresolved the women’s claims that the actor, who is best-known for his role on the sitcom “That ‘70s Show,” violently assaulted them at his Hollywood Hills home in the early 2000s.
Prosecutors must now decide whether to retry Masterson.
Like Masterson, the three women were members of the Church of Scientology at the time of the alleged attacks, and prosecutors in the trial delved into the faith’s arcane rules for its followers. Two of the woman testified that they had delayed reporting Masterson, fearing that church officials would sanction them for doing so.
The women told jurors that Masterson had plied them with alcohol before assaulting them in the bathroom and bedroom of his Hollywood Hills home.
“He is very charming in front of people,” testified Christina B., who was Masterson’s girlfriend for six years.
But the charm could morph into violent rage when they were alone with him, the women said.
“And just his face — (I’d) never seen it look like that,” Jen B. testified of Masterson’s expression, describing the actor forcing himself on her in April 2003. “Oh, God. So scary.”
Jen B. and a third accuser, N. Trout, said Masterson had forced them into his backyard hot tub despite their pleas that he stop. Jen B. said he‘d displayed a gun during the assault and choked her into unconsciousness.
“I thought I was going to die,” she testified in October.
“What are you doing? ... You can’t do that,” Trout recounted saying to Masterson at the time. “Why did you do that? I told you no.”
Christina B., who had dated Masterson in the late 1990s and early 2000s, testified that the actor was often violent with her during their relationship, and accused him of raping her as she slept in November 2001. She said that she awoke and begged him to stop, and then pulled Masterson’s hair in an attempt to make him relent. In response, he slapped her in the face and spat on her, she testified.
“Three victims ... were forcibly raped by this defendant, Danny Masterson,” Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said in closing arguments earlier this month , pointing at Masterson seated across the courtroom. “A man who was controlling, and a man for whom ‘no’ never meant ‘no.’ ”
The Los Angeles Times generally does not name victims of sexual assault unless they choose to fully identify themselves. To protect their privacy, the three women accusing Masterson were identified in court either by their first name and last initial or first initial and last name.
The allegations against Masterson played out against the backdrop of Scientology, and the trial provided a glimpse into the secretive world of the church’s Celebrity Centre International in Hollywood, where prosecutors and accusers said the church worked to protect the actor from the allegations.
All three of Masterson’s accusers have since left the church.
Jen B. and Christina B. testified they were afraid that if they reported Masterson to law enforcement they would be labeled “suppressive” by the church. That would have required their families and friends in Scientology to cease contact from them, they said.
“I was a Scientologist and Mr. Masterson is a Scientologist, and you cannot report another Scientologist in good standing to the authorities,” testified Jen B. “My life would be over. My parents would have to disconnect from me. ... I couldn’t talk to any of my friends ever again. ... I wouldn’t have anywhere to work or live.”
Christina B. testified that her “ethics officers” in Scientology told her that you cannot be raped by your significant other — or “second dynamic,” as partners are known in the church.
The Church of Scientology denies protecting Masterson or dissuading any of the accusers from going to law enforcement with their allegations of rape. The church also says it never declared any of the women suppressive.
“The Church does not discourage anyone from reporting any alleged crime nor tell anyone not to report any alleged criminal conduct. The Church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of Scientologists, or of anyone, to law enforcement,” spokeswoman Karin Pouw said in a statement. “Quite the opposite, Church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land.”
The Masterson trial coincided with another high-profile rape case, with former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein‘s trial taking place down the hall on the ninth floor of the same downtown L.A. courthouse.
It also coincided with the civil trial in New York of Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis, a former Scientologist, who was accused of raping a woman in 2013. Haggis speculated the rape allegations were a plot advanced by Scientology. A jury this month found Haggis liable for sexual assault and ordered him to pay his accuser $10 million.
The Masterson and Haggis trials left the church embroiled in sex scandals on either side of the country.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo limited testimony about the religion in Masterson’s trial.
She allowed the women to explain how their involvement in Scientology led them to delay reporting their accusations against Masterson to police. Olmedo also said they could tell jurors about their belief that church policy prohibits reporting crimes committed by other Scientologists to law enforcement.
Defense attorney Philip Cohen argued that Scientology was the “elephant in the room.”
“We’ve heard Scientology over and over again. ... It really became the go-to excuse. When someone didn’t remember something or something got contradicted, it became about Scientology,” he said in closing arguments.
Cohen worked to convince jurors that the women’s stories did not line up and that they had banded together to create false accusations against his client.
The prosecutors’ case, he said, “ignored the blatant, obvious, overwhelming contradictions and fabrications that each Jane Doe has given you.”
