Los Angeles-ALsharqiya, September 9: A court in Los Angeles, Thursday, issued a decision to imprison the American actor Danny Masterson, known for his role in the series "The Seventies Show" and a prominent member of the (scientific) Church of Scientology, for 30 years (life) in the case of the rape of two women.
The 47-year-old actor subsequently received the maximum sentence he was facing, after the jury convicted him last June.
During his trial, three women, also members of the Church of Scientology, accused him of raping them at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. The members of the jury supported two of them, while they did not reach the necessary consensus to issue a verdict in the matter of the third plaintiff.
During the pronouncement of the verdict, Judge Charlene Olmedo turned to the actor, who had consistently asserted his innocence by saying: "Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim." She also ordered him to be placed on the sex offenders register.
During the trial, prosecutors concluded that the actor had "drugged and raped both of these victims" and called for him to be "held responsible" for these abuses.
One of them commented in court on Thursday, saying that the world had become "safer" after Masterson was behind bars.
The woman, whose identity was kept confidential during the trial, added to Masterson: "You like (...) to hurt women (...). You've lived your life behind a mask, as two people. But the real person is sitting here."
This case, which began in 2017 following the exposure of the sexual scandals that accused former producer Harvey Weinstein and sparked the launch of the #MeToo movement, also raised questions about the role of the Church of Scientology.
Two of the plaintiffs confirmed that the organization, which is particularly active in Los Angeles, was discouraging them from reporting to the police.
Masterson's attorneys stressed that the plaintiffs' statements had changed over the years, and indicated that negative premises against the Church of Scientology may have motivated the lawsuit.
In a previous trial in November, a different jury declined to rule in the case, and was unable to reach a consensus.
Masterson is married to actress Bijou Phillips, with whom he has a nine-year-old daughter. His stardom began in 1998 through the comedy series “The Seventies Show,” in which he played Stephen Hyde alongside Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher.
He participated again with Kutcher in the series “The Ranch” on “Netflix”, but he was excluded from it in 2017 after the Los Angeles Police confirmed that it was investigating multiple allegations of rape against the actor.
After the actor's arrest in June 2020, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's office said it had dropped two more sexual assault charges against him, due to insufficient evidence and a lapse of time.
