The jury in the case of “That ‘70s Show” actor Danny Masterson was poised Tuesday to hear closing arguments in his retrial on rape charges, following three weeks of testimony with no defense witnesses called to the stand.
Three women said he raped them between 2001 and 2003 in his Los Angeles home. It’s his second trial on the charges, after a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in December.
Masterson, 47, has pleaded not guilty. A conviction on all three counts could land him in prison for 45 years.
One alleged victim said he “smothered” her and held her at gunpoint, also choking her after a drink he gave her left her moving in and out of consciousness. A second said he admitted to having sex with her in December 2003 while she was unconscious. The third said he fed her a drink that left her feeling “limp” and “like a rag doll.”
He was dropped by both his talent agency and Netflix as the allegations played out.
Unlike the first trial, prosecutors this time were allowed to specifically say that Masterson drugged the women. Previously, Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo had only allowed them to give secondary evidence of that.
In both trials, but especially in the second one, the Church of Scientology played a large role. Masterson, and all three of his accusers, were members of the church at the time of the alleged rapes. The three victims have since left but Masterson is still part of the organization.
One of the alleged victims, ex-girlfriend Christina Bixler, said the church discouraged her from going to police after he raped her twice and that church officials had her scale down her report in their files. Both Church of Scientology leadership and Masterson’s own publicist said a woman could not be raped if the sex occurred while the two were in a relationship.
In the retrial, a former church leader testified as an expert on Scientology’s stance about when to call in the police — something all three women said they were discouraged from doing. The church has denied having this policy in place.