Danny Masterson lost his appeal of his 2023 rape conviction, leaving his 30-years-to-life sentence in place.
An 89-page, unanimous ruling rejected Danny Masterson’s bid to overturn his rape conviction, with 3 California appeals judges finding no trial error that warranted a new trial. The former That ’70s Show actor’s sentence of 30 years to life remains in place.
The California Court of Appeal’s Second Appellate District rejected challenges involving evidence admitted at trial and the statute of limitations. It also denied a separate petition alleging that Masterson received ineffective assistance from his lawyers.
A central issue was testimony about Scientology. Masterson’s lawyers argued that Judge Charlaine Olmedo was biased against the religion and that allowing evidence about its beliefs violated his constitutional rights. The appeals court found her statements showed “no animus or departure from neutrality regarding Scientology.”
The court found the testimony relevant to explaining why the women, who were Scientologists at the time, waited to report the assaults to police. The women said church officials told them the assaults weren’t rape and that reporting them to law enforcement violated church policy. The church has strongly denied those claims.
Masterson was charged in 2020 over allegations that he forcibly raped 3 women in separate incidents between 2000 and 2003. His 2022 trial ended with a deadlocked jury. At his 2023 retrial, jurors convicted him of 2 counts of forcible rape involving women identified as J.B. and N.T. They couldn’t reach a verdict on the charge involving C.B., a former girlfriend.
Masterson has maintained his innocence, and his defense has said the encounters were consensual. His appeal argued that judicial rulings distorted the evidence presented to jurors and that exculpatory evidence hadn’t been shown to them.
Masterson, 50, is serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. He’s more than 20 years away from parole eligibility. His appellate attorneys, Cliff Gardner and Eric Multhaup, plan to take his case to the California Supreme Court.
