LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jurors in Danny Masterson’s rape retrial are anticipated to start deliberations Wednesday morning after legal professionals wrap up closing arguments within the case in opposition to the previous “That ’70s Show” star.
Late final 12 months, a jury was unable to achieve a verdict within the case in opposition to Masterson involving rape allegations by three girls, and Los Angeles Choose Charlaine Olmedo declared a mistrial.
Prosecutors stated throughout all-day closing arguments Tuesday that Masterson drugged the ladies with the intention to assault them, then relied on his standing as a distinguished member within the Church of Scientology to keep away from penalties for years.
“You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury of seven men and five women. “The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”
Masterson, 47, has pleaded not responsible to raping three girls at his home between 2001 and 2003. His legal professional, Philip Cohen, advised jurors throughout his closing Tuesday that the ladies’s years-old tales as so stuffed with inconsistencies that there’s greater than sufficient cheap doubt for jurors to acquit Masterson.
Cohen emphasised the dearth of any bodily proof of drugging, with the investigation that led to Masterson’s arrest coming some 15 years after the alleged rapes.
“Miss Anson presented a case as if she was arguing a drugging case,” Cohen said. “Maybe it’s because there is no evidence of force or violence.”
Anson’s colleague, Deputy District Lawyer Reinhold Mueller, will end the prosecution’s rebuttal that he started late Tuesday, and the jury will get the case.
Scientology performed an outsized function through the trial. Masterson is a member, and all three girls are former members. Prosecutors stated the establishment protected him and helped persuade the ladies that they weren’t raped and couldn’t go to authorities to report a fellow Scientologist in good standing. The church denied having any such coverage.
“Why have we heard so much about Scientology?” Cohen stated in his closing. “Could it be because there are problems with the government’s case?”
Masterson may recover from 40 years in jail if convicted on all three counts.
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