In sports parlance, prosecutors pursuing three charges of rape against Danny Masterson have run out of steam.
No close Out – This would mean a complete acquittal for the “That ’70s Show” star. Instead, the jury of 12 could not reach a verdict after a two-week deliberative process that ended in a mistrial declared last Wednesday due to a Thanksgiving break and the loss of two jurors to COVID-19.
But the score wasn’t great for the LA District Attorney: 10-2 favored acquittal on the first count, 8-4 on the second and 7-5 on the third.
To most court observers, Judge Charlene F. The jury’s findings at Olmedo’s request were completely shocking. Now Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller has a terrifying decision to make: retry the case at the risk of being embarrased, or face the consequences of dropping one of the #MeToo movement’s highest-stakes cases — one of with strong scientology element – walk free?
“If it wasn’t a media case, if it wasn’t under so much scrutiny, I think they would dismiss it,” said Josh Ritter, a Los Angeles defense attorney who spent a decade in the DA’s office and Masterson. Seen closely. The matter was however not connected with this. “You get hanged 10-2 for pleading not guilty? You’re not going to try it again. And it’s not that the prosecution bothered—they presented the best case they could.”
For now, Masterson will have to remain exactly where the jury previously had him for two full weeks: on the ice, held on bond to the tune of $3 million.
Three women – who said they met Masterson through the Church of Scientology in the early 2000s – testified a couple of weeks ago that an overbearing and commanding Masterson gave them an alcoholic drink, then raped them in their room , because they flowed in and out of consciousness. Jane Doe was the long-term girlfriend of one of the witnesses; The other two he knew casually through mutual friends.
Each of Scientology said pressure prevented them from promptly reporting alleged crimes, which the church has vehemently refused,
But it was a fourth witness whose testimony looked like it might seal Masterson’s fate. Called as a supporting witness at the 11th hour, Jane Doe 4 was not a Scientologist, and her allegations were not among the crimes charged, but her story so clearly dovetailed with others, and her emotionally charged testimony seemed so believable, that it was hard to imagine the jury unmoved by the power of the through-lines.
“The jurors are people with commonsense,” Ritter said. “They hear from one person, they hear from another person … leads to a third over time, what’s the likelihood? And by the fourth, it’s like, ‘Okay, this guy is a rapist.’
Yet that did not happen in the jury room, which saw four alternative substitutions before the mistrial was declared last Wednesday. One quickly probed over undeclared “concerns”; The other was sent home to sleep during the trial. While deliberations went on – then took a full week break for Thanksgiving before losing two members to COVID upon their return – expert observers believed that one, maybe two holdouts were preventing a conviction.
It turned out that they were widely divided on all three charges, and the totals of the separate votes for each charge showed a “conscientious” jury, Ritter said, one that did not actually consider each charge separately. Took time, but stuck to his personal beliefs.
There was an early clue that the jury was leaning toward acquittal, Ritter said. At one point, the panel asked to see defense attorney Philip Cohen’s “degree-of-guilt” chart, a fairly standard argument that Masterson’s attorneys turned into an elaborate visual aid.
“When I saw that, I thought, ‘Oh, boy, that’s a huge sign in [Masterson’s] favor,” Ritter said. “If they ever ask for defense stuff … that means it’s not going well.”
Tony Ortega, author of underground bunker Blogs about Scientology that were present for the entire trial believe a re-trial is likely.
“I spoke briefly with the prosecutor, and he said he plans to proceed,” Ortega told TheWrap. “My understanding from the victims is … they are wondering today what could have been done differently. Which witnesses would have been called who were not? At this point the prosecutors are again thinking of trial strategy. Have been.
Indeed, many of the witnesses on the list were not called—including Lisa Marie Presley, who prosecutors expected would testify that Scientology officials had told them to report Masterson to the police for speaking to one of the accusers. was recruited for Presley suggested that even after the DA assured her that any liability she might bear had lapsed by the statute of limitations, she could plead a 5th. He was eventually dropped as a witness.
Prosecutors listed a fifth Jane Doe in their initial filing, but she never materialized. And the possibility of one or more Jane Does has been floated since early, though observers doubt whether any more accusers will come forward, or testify voluntarily.
Masterson was formally charged in 2020, but the allegations first surfaced in 2017 when Ortega informed of Detectives were probing the actor after three women came forward with allegations of rape and assault.
Getting those women back on the stand won’t be an obstacle for prosecutors, as they have vowed to fight on — but there’s also a pending civil lawsuit against Masterson, the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige. Placed on hold while Masterson’s criminal trial was ongoing, the women reported on Masterson and detailed allegations of stalking and harassment by Scientology members after they left the church.
Ortega said, “Certainly that trial would have helped, but this is a very different civil case.” “It’s not about rape, it’s about the harassment that these women say they’re going through. I know personally that they have some interesting evidence on their side.
The church has called those allegations “ridiculous and pretentious”. If Masterson is ultimately cleared of criminal charges, the foundation of that lawsuit would be weakened, and Scientology would have won back-to-back victories amid the results of the “That ’70s Show” star and Paul Haggis, who argued that The church was behind a civil rape case it lost in New York last month.
With the announcement of the end of the trial came another twist: Olmedo took the highly unusual step of allowing attorneys from both sides into the jury room, where he spent several minutes asking questions of the panelists. The jury seemed ready to partake in a rare moment of candor, and when Cohen emerged he exclaimed: “I’ve never been entranced like this.”
Ritter said the biggest issue for the jury may be the time it took for victims to contact police, even if prosecutors made the Scientology argument. This rhymes with what many dismissed jurors said during selection for the Harvey Weinstein trial – that no matter what the evidence shows, they will never convict anyone of a crime that took so long to report. had not been.
“If I’m trying to read the tea leaves here, the prosecution’s biggest problem was the delay in reporting,” Ritter said. “It doesn’t matter how you try to convince the jurors … they’re still thinking, ‘I’m not going to wait almost 10 years to report the guy who killed me to law enforcement. Raped her.'”
One thing that won’t be a factor in the DA’s decision, Ritter said: cost and resources.
“They never consider the cost,” he said. “It’s government business. If you’re not prosecuting this man, you’re prosecuting another man.
