Former That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson, through his lawyers, has appealed his 2023 rape convictions.
In September of 2023, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for raping two women, both former members of the Church of Scientology (Masterson is still a member of the church). The actor, 47, was found guilty of two of three counts of forcible rape during his retrial in May 2023.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The retrial was called after 2022’s original trial on the same three counts ended in a mistrial when a jury deadlocked, failing to reach unanimous verdicts.
Now, in a 242-page appellant’s opening brief filed on Dec. 18, Masterson’s lawyers allege that key witness testimonies morphed over time and “erroneous judicial rulings” skewed the jury’s view of the evidence against him.
In a statement posted to the Cliff Gardner law offices website, the lawyers said there were “two fundamental flaws” in Masterson’s convictions, one being the aforementioned skewed view and the second a “stunning amount” of alleged exculpatory evidence “never presented to the jury.”
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His legal team goes on to say that these are only “one part” of their planned challenge to his convictions, and they are working towards Masterson’s “complete exoneration.”
Masterson originally filed a notice of appeal in November 2023. In January, the judge in his criminal case, Charlaine Olmedo, denied him bail pending his appeal, calling him a flight risk.
In June of 2023, Olmedo ruled Masterson’s ex-defence lawyers, Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum, leaked sensitive trial information to the Church of Scientology about the women who accused Masterson of rape, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The confidential discovery material from Masterson’s rape trial was sent to another Church of Scientology lawyer, Vicki Podberesky, and it contained police reports from the victims and their personal information, including home addresses and banking details.
The leak to Podberesky was exposed during Masterson’s retrial, when Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller said he received an email from Podberesky — who was not affiliated with the trial — that included an attachment of 570 pages of discovery material. It is unclear if the attachment was sent by accident.
Podberesky tried to claim prosecutors were soliciting false testimony from victims in order to wrongfully convict Masterson of rape. Olmedo said the allegation was “demonstrably false.”
The Church of Scientology has denied all accusations of wrongdoing and was not a party in Masterson’s trial. Podberesky told the Los Angeles Times she legally obtained the confidential trial documents but did not say how.
Mesereau and Applebaum represented Masterson in court until May 2022, when they were replaced by other Scientology-affiliated lawyers.
Masterson’s lawyers had also been accused by Mueller of unwanted contact with the jurors in his case. In September of 2023, Olmedo sent a letter to both legal teams stating that several jurors complained of “unwanted contact at their homes or work by members of the defense team,” according to a Los Angeles Times report.
Mueller and his team tried to paint Masterson as a serial rapist who has been protected by high-ranking officials in the Church of Scientology. They claimed Masterson, on separate occasions, put drugs into the drinks of a longtime girlfriend and two other women he knew through the church before he raped them.
After the retrial’s guilty verdict was announced, a shocked Masterson was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and he remains in state custody.
Bijou Phillips, his wife of 12 years, filed for divorce from the actor in September of last year.
© 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
