That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson could get decades in prison at sentencing for rapes

That ‘70s Show actor Danny Masterson. He is due to be sentenced today for two rapes committed in 2003. Photo / AP

That ’70s Show star Danny Masterson could get as much as 30 years to life in prison at his sentencing today for the rapes of two women two decades ago.

A Los Angeles jury of seven women and five men found Masterson, 47, guilty of two counts on May 31 after seven days of deliberations. Both attacks took place in his Hollywood-area home in 2003, when he was at the height of his fame on the Fox network sitcom.

The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on a third count, an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend.

The verdict came in a second trial after a jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of forcible rape in December and a mistrial was declared.

Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence in the Church of Scientology – to which all three women belonged at the time – to avoid consequences for decades after the attacks.

The women blamed the church for their hesitancy in going to police. They testified that, when they reported Masterson to Scientology officials, they were told they were not raped, were put through ethics programmes themselves and were warned against going reporting a member of such high standing to police.

“They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against,” Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told jurors at the trial. “Scientology told them there’s no justice for them.”

The church said after the verdict that the “testimony and descriptions of Scientology beliefs” during the trial were “uniformly false”.

“The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone – Scientologists or not – to law enforcement,” a statement said.

Masterson did not testify and his lawyers called no witnesses. The defence argued that the acts were consensual and attempted to discredit the women’s stories by highlighting changes and inconsistencies over time, which they said showed signs of co-ordination between them.

The women whose testimony led to Masterson’s conviction said that, in 2003, he gave them drinks and they became woozy or passed out before he raped them.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F Olmedo allowed prosecutors and accusers to say directly in the second trial that Masterson drugged the women. In the first trial, she allowed them only to describe their condition.

Masterson was not charged with any counts of drugging and there was no toxicology evidence to back up the assertion. The issue could be a factor in a planned appeal against conviction.

Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in That ‘70s Show from 1998 until 2006.

He reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy The Ranch but was written off the show when a police investigation was revealed the following year.

The investigation began before a wave of women shook Hollywood with stories about Harvey Weinstein in October 2017. However, the conviction and sentencing of Masterson still represents a #MeToo era success for Los Angeles prosecutors, along with the conviction of Weinstein himself last year.