Danny Masterson to stand trial on 3 rape charges
A judge on Friday said "That ’70s Show" actor Danny Masterson must stand trial on three counts of rape.
Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo
made the determination in the fourth day of a preliminary hearing where the
prosecution laid out its evidence.
That included dramatic and emotional testimony from three
women who took the stand to say that Masterson raped them in 2001 and 2003.
Olmedo said she found the women's testimony credible for the
purposes of a preliminary hearing, where the bar for sufficient evidence is
much lower than at trial.
Masterson has denied the charges. His attorney, Thomas
Mesereau, said Masterson had consensual sex with the women and that he would
prove his client's innocence. Mesereau declined to comment on the judge's
decision outside court.
During the hearing, Mesereau repeatedly challenged the women
on discrepancies in their stories in the years since they said they were raped
and suggested that the prosecution was tainted by anti-religious bias against
the Church of Scientology.
Masterson is a prominent Scientologist, all three women are
former Scientologists and the church and its teachings came up constantly
during testimony.
The judge said she found the women's explanations credible
that church teachings kept them from reporting their accusations to police for
years.
The 45-year-old actor has been free on bail since his June
arrest. He is charged with three counts of rape by force or fear and could get
up to 45 years in prison if convicted.
The forthcoming trial represents the rare prosecution of a
Hollywood figure in the #MeToo era despite dozens of investigations by police
and the Los Angeles district attorney, most of which have ended without
charges.
The allegations happened at the height of Masterson’s fame,
when he starred as Steven Hyde on Fox TV’s retro sitcom "That ’70s
Show" from 1998 to 2006 alongside Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher
Grace.
He had reunited with Kutcher on the Netflix Western sitcom
"The Ranch" when the LAPD investigation of him was revealed in March
2017. The news did not have immediate career repercussions for Masterson, but
later in the year, after allegations against Harvey Weinstein shook Hollywood,
he was written off the show.
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