Danny Masterson has lost the appeal of his rape conviction, meaning his 30-year prison sentence has been upheld.<\/p>\n
The actor, best known for his role on That \u201970s Show, was convicted in 2023 of two counts of rape<\/a> against two women in 2003, while a third charge relating to a third plaintiff, who alleged she was raped by Masterson in 2001, was quashed.<\/p>\n Masterson has insisted that sex with all three plaintiffs was consensual. In December he filed an appeal, questioning the plaintiffs\u2019 credibility and claiming he didn\u2019t receive a fair trial as the judge, Los Angeles superior court judge Charlaine F Olmedo, was biased against Scientology<\/a>.<\/p>\n In an 89-page ruling<\/a> filed in the California court of appeal on Tuesday, a three-judge panel rejected Masterson\u2019s arguments, finding that Olmedo\u2019s statements during the trial showed \u201cno animus or departure from neutrality regarding Scientology\u201d.<\/p>\n During the trial, prosecutors argued that Masterson, a prominent Scientologist, had used his role in the church \u2013 of which all three plaintiffs were also members at the time \u2013 to avoid accountability for the assaults. Prosecutors also argued the plaintiffs had delayed reporting the incidents due to their fear they would violate a Scientology rule against going to the police and be retaliated against.<\/p>\n Two of his accusers testified that when they reported Masterson to Scientology officials, they were told they were not raped, were put through \u201cethics programs\u201d which they likened to repeated interrogations, and were warned against going to police. One of the women said she was shunned and ostracised for doing so.<\/p>\n Olmedo allowed a former Scientologist, Claire Headley, to testify as an expert about the church\u2019s beliefs and practices. Headley told the court that Scientology regards going to law enforcement as a \u201csuppressive act\u201d that was sanctionable by excommunication.<\/p>\n In his appeal, Masterson\u2019s lawyers argued the court had improperly intruded into interpretation of church doctrine.<\/p>\n \u201cThe jury in this case was not asked to determine the truth or falsity of Scientology doctrine or beliefs,\u201d the appeals court panel wrote. \u201cAdmission of Scientology evidence for those purposes did not contravene the First Amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n The panel also rejected separate arguments about the statute of limitations and evidentiary rulings, and denied that he did not get an adequate defense.<\/p>\n Masterson\u2019s lawyers, Cliff Gardner and Eric Multhaup, called it an \u201cunfortunate decision\u201d, telling Variety<\/a> they would appeal to the California supreme court.<\/p>\n After Masterson was found guilty in 2023, the church of Scientology issued a statement to say the \u201ctestimony and descriptions of Scientology beliefs\u201d during the trial were \u201cuniformly false\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone \u2013 Scientologists or not \u2013 to law enforcement,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn<\/a> offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis<\/a> offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect<\/a> (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org\/rcip\/internl.html<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Danny Masterson has lost the appeal of his rape conviction, meaning his 30-year prison sentence has been upheld.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":659146,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-659145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}