LOS ANGELES (AP) – A judge declared a mistrial Wednesday after jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked in the trial of “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson, who was accused of three violations
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo had ordered jurors to take a week off for Thanksgiving and continue deliberating after being told on Nov. 18 that they could not reach a consensus on the allegations of rape after a month-long trial in which the Church of Scientology played a supporting role.
Masterson, 46, was accused of raping three women, including a former girlfriend, at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. He has pleaded not guilty and his lawyer said all the acts were consensual. All three women were members of the church at the time, and Masterson remains one.
“I find the jurors hopelessly deadlocked,” Judge Charlaine Olmedo said after asking if there was anything the court could do to bring them closer to a unanimous decision. He set a March date for a new trial.
Jurors said they had voted seven times on Tuesday and Wednesday without being able to reach a consensus on any of the three charges.
The jury foreman said only two jurors voted to convict on the first count, four voted to convict on the second and five voted to convict on the third.
Jurors were forced to start deliberations from scratch on Monday, when two had to be excused because they contracted COVID-19. They deliberated for two days but still could not reach a verdict.
The result was a serious setback for prosecutors and for the three women who said they have long sought justice.
The proceedings came amid a flurry of cases on both coasts with #MeToo overtones, including the Los Angeles trial of Harvey Weinstein just down the hall from Masterson’s. In New York, Kevin Spacey won a sexual misconduct lawsuit brought by actor Anthony Rapp in New York, and a jury ordered director and screenwriter Paul Haggis to pay $10 million in a civil case.
But in the Masterson trial, as in the Haggis trial, the implications of #MeToo were largely overshadowed by the specter of Scientology, despite the judge’s insistence that the church not become a de facto defendant.
The women, all known as Jane Does and all former church members, said they were bullied, harassed and harassed after Masterson was charged. They have repeated these allegations in a pending lawsuit against the church.
Masterson’s lawyer, Philip Cohen, said the church was mentioned 700 times during the trial and argued it became an excuse for the prosecution’s failure to build a credible case against Masterson, a prominent Scientologist .
But Assistant District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said the church had tried to silence the women, which is why it took two decades for the case to go to trial.
Masterson did not testify. His lawyer presented no defense evidence and focused on inconsistencies in the accounts of the three accusers, who he said changed their stories over time and talked to each other before going to police.
“The key to this case is not when they reported it,” Cohen said during closing arguments. “It’s what they said when they reported it. What they said after reporting it. And what they said at the trial.”
Mueller argued that Masterson was a man “for whom ‘no’ never meant ‘no,'” as the graphic and emotional testimony of the three accusers shows.
Two women said Masterson poured them a drink and they became dizzy or passed out before being violently raped. One said she thought she was going to die as Masterson held a pillow over her face.
An ex-girlfriend said she woke up to find Masterson having sex with her without her consent. The defense said her claims were undermined because she later had sex with him after they broke up.
Cohen told jurors they could acquit Masterson if they believed he “actually and reasonably believed” the women consented to sex. Mueller countered that no one would believe the acts described were consensual, reminding jurors that a woman repeatedly told him “no,” pulled her hair and tried to get out from under him.
Mueller told jurors not to be swayed by defense speculation, saying inconsistencies in the victims’ testimony were signs of authenticity rather than accounts that had been written.
The charges date from a period when Masterson was at the height of his fame, starring from 1998 to 2006 as Steven Hyde on Fox’s “That ’70s Show.” The show made stars of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace and is getting an upcoming Netflix reboot with “That ’90s Show.”
Masterson had reunited with Kutcher on the Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but the show was canceled when an LAPD investigation was revealed in December 2017.