Jury begins deliberations in Danny Masterson rape retrial

The jury of seven males and 5 girls obtained the case when prosecutors lastly completed their rebuttal after all-day closing arguments a day earlier.

Late final 12 months, a jury was unable to succeed in a verdict within the case in opposition to Masterson involving rape allegations by three girls, and Los Angeles Judge Charlaine Olmedo declared a mistrial.

Prosecutors stated of their closing argument on Tuesday that Masterson drugged the ladies so as to assault them, then relied on his standing as a distinguished member within the Church of Scientology to keep away from penalties for many years.

“You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice,” Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson advised the jury. “The defendant makes that choice for these victims. And he does it over and over and over again.”

After closing arguments, Masterson’s legal professional Philip Cohen made a movement for a mistrial, one in every of a number of that he made throughout the three-week trial, due to the prosecution’s point out of drugging, which isn’t a part of the fees. Olmedo rejected the movement, saying that the prosecution was appearing throughout the bounds of her pre-trial choice by permitting them to claim that the ladies had been drugged.

Masterson, 47, has pleaded not responsible to raping three girls at his residence between 2001 and 2003. During the defence’s closing, Cohen advised jurors that the ladies’s accounts are so stuffed with inconsistencies that there’s greater than sufficient affordable 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 stated. “Maybe it’s because there is no evidence of force or violence.”

Scientology performed an outsized position throughout 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.

Masterson might get greater than 40 years in jail if convicted on all three counts.