That 70s Show actor Danny Masterson found guilty in rape retrial

Actor Danny Masterson has been found guilty of raping two women between 2001 and 2003 in a retrial.

Key points:The jury deliberated for seven days before reaching a verdict on two of three chargesThe Church of Scientology played a large part of the trial The actor now faces up to 30 years in prison

WARNING: This story contains graphic content that some readers may find disturbing.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for seven days spread over two weeks before reaching a verdict on two of three charges. 

They could not reach a verdict on the third count, that alleged Masterson raped a longtime girlfriend. They had voted 8-4 in favour of conviction.

Masterson was led from the courtroom in handcuffs. The 47-year-old actor faces up to 30 years in prison.

His wife, actor and model Bijou Phillips, wept as he was led away. Other family and friends sat stone-faced.

Jury unable to reach verdict in 2022 Danny Masterson's wife Bijou Phillips wept as he was led away after being found guilty.(AP: Chris Pizzello)

In 2022, a jury was unable to reach a verdict in the case against the actor involving rape allegations by three women, and Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo declared a mistrial.

Prosecutors, retrying Masterson after a deadlocked jury led to a mistrial in December, said he forcibly raped three women, including a longtime girlfriend, in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.

During the retrial they said in their closing argument Masterson had drugged the women's drinks in order to assault them, then relied on his status as a prominent member in the Church of Scientology to avoid consequences for decades.

"You don't want to have sex? You don't have a choice," Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury.

"The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it, over and over and over again."

Masterson did not testify, and his lawyers called no witnesses.

During the defence's closing, Mr Cohen told jurors the women's accounts were so full of inconsistencies, there was more than enough reasonable doubt for jurors to acquit Masterson.

Danny Masterson played Steven Hyde on the popular sitcom, That '70s Show.(IMDB: The Carsey-Werner Company)

He emphasised the lack of any physical evidence of drugging, with the investigation that led to Masterson's arrest coming 15 years after the alleged rapes.

"Miss Anson presented a case as if she was arguing a drugging case,"  Mr Cohen said. "Maybe it's because there is no evidence of force or violence."

Scientology played an outsized role during the trial. Masterson is a member, and all three women are former members.

Prosecutors said the institution protected him, and helped convince the women that they were not raped, and could not go to authorities to report a fellow Scientologist in good standing. The church denied having any such policy.

Testimony in this case was graphic and emotional.

Two women, who knew Masterson from social circles in the church, said he gave them drinks and they then became woozy or passed out before he violently raped them in 2003.

The third, Masterson's then-girlfriend of five years, said she awoke to find him raping her, and had to pull his hair to stop him.

Bid for another mistrial 

After the closing arguments,  Masterson's attorney, Philip Cohen, made a motion for a mistrial, one of several that he made during the three-week trial, because of the prosecution's mention of drugging, which was not part of the charges.

Judge Olmedo rejected the motion, and said the prosecution was acting within the bounds of her pre-trial decision by allowing them to assert that the women were drugged.

In the 2022 trial, Masterson, 47, pleaded not guilty to raping three women at his home between 2001 and 2003.

Masterson played the roles of Steven Hyde in That '70s Show, Milo Foster in Men at Work and Jameson "Rooster" Bennett in The Ranch.

AP