Danny Masterson: Mistrial in case of That ’70s Show actor accused of raping three women
A judge has declared a mistrial in the case of That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson, who was facing three rape charges.
Jurors told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo that they were hopelessly deadlocked, having voted seven times on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The 46-year-old is accused of raping three women, including a former girlfriend, in his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003.
Two of the women were 23, and the other was 28.
Masterson denies the charges and said the sex was consensual.
Jurors first told the judge they could not reach verdicts on 18 November but were given time off during Thanksgiving week before being asked to try again.
Two jurors caught COVID-19 on Monday, forcing a restart in deliberations, but two days later verdicts remained elusive, with the foreman saying two jurors voted for conviction on the first count, four on the second count and five on the third count.
A retrial will be held in March.
Masterson is a member of the Church of Scientology, and his three accusers were at the time of the alleged crimes.
Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller claimed it had taken two decades for the case to get to trial because the church had tried to keep the women quiet.
The women have launched a lawsuit against the church, saying they were intimidated, harassed and stalked after Masterson was charged.
But Masterson’s lawyer Philip Cohen said the church had been mentioned 700 times during the trial and was an excuse for the prosecution’s failure to build a believable case.
Masterson, who has previously said he is being persecuted for being a member of the church, did not testify and his lawyer focused instead on inconsistencies in evidence from the three women.
During closing arguments, he said: “The key to this case is not when they reported it.
“It’s what they said when they reported it, what they said after they reported it, and what they said at trial.”
Two of the women said Masterson gave them drinks and they became dizzy or passed out before being raped, while the third – the ex-girlfriend – said she woke up to find Masterson raping her.
Mr Cohen said jurors could acquit Masterson if they thought he “actually and reasonably believed” the women consented but Mr Mueller said nobody would believe there was consent, with one of the women repeatedly telling Masterson “no”.
Masterson found fame as Steven Hyde on sitcom That ’70s Show, alongside co-stars Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace.
He worked with Kutcher on Netflix comedy The Ranch but was written out of the show after it was revealed that police were investigating him in late 2017.
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Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
R Kelly’s challenge against a 20-year sentence for child sex convictions has been quashed by an appeals court.
The singer was correctly sentenced to 20 years in prison, a Chicago court ruled on Friday.
He was convicted in 2022 on three charges of producing child sexual abuse images and three charges of enticement of minors for sex.
In his appeal, Kelly, 57, argued Illinois’ old statute of limitations – which required prosecution of child sex crime charges within 10 years – should have applied, rather than the current law permitting charges while an accuser is still alive.
The appeals court rejected this, labelling it an attempt by Kelly to elude the charges entirely after “employing a complex scheme to keep victims quiet”.
He also argued that charges involving one accuser should have been tried separately from the charges tied to three other accusers due to video evidence that became a focal point of the Chicago trial.
Prosecutors have said the video showed Kelly abusing a girl. The accuser, only identified as Jane, testified for the first time that she was 14 when the video was taken.
The three-judge panel from the appeals court noted jurors acquitted Kelly on seven of the 13 counts against him “even after viewing those abhorrent tapes”.
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In a written statement, Kelly’s attorney Jennifer Bonjean said they plan to seek a US Supreme Court review of the decision and “pursue all of his appellate remedies until we free R Kelly”.
“We are disappointed in the ruling, but our fight is far from over,” she said.
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