A Los Angeles jury on Wednesday found US actor Danny Masterson, 47, guilty of two counts of rape. The actor was charged with forcibly raping three women in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003, however the jury was deadlocked on a third rape count.
The actor, who is best known for his role as Steven Hyde on the late 1990s and early 2000s sitcom “That ‘70s Show,” earlier pleaded not guilty to three counts of felony rape after charges had been filed.
Masterson was a member of the Church of Scientology, and prosecutors argued during the latest round of proceedings that he used his influence in the Church to avoid consequences for raping his victims.
Three of the survivors gave detailed testimonies, the first alleging she stopped by his house to pick up keys when he gave her a drugged beverage and then proceeded to rape her.
The second, an ex-girlfriend of Masterson, said he raped her twice, and that on one occasion after he had drugged her she wondered aloud the next morning why she was in pain. He then admitted to raping her while she was unconscious, and laughed at her.
"He started laughing at me," she testified. "I asked him if I was unconscious the whole time, and he said 'yeah.'"
The third victim said she had set "boundaries" and told Masterson she did not want to have sex with him before visiting him at his home. She said despite this, the actor assaulted her in his jacuzzi.
“The defendant drugs his victims to gain control. He does this to take away his victims’ ability to consent,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson told the jury during the trial's closing arguments on May 16. “You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice. The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”
The three victims are former members of the Church of Scientology, and said the organization had discouraged them from reporting the rapes at the time.