Former That ’70s Present actor Danny Masterson, via his attorneys, has appealed his 2023 rape convictions.
In September of 2023, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life in jail for raping two ladies, each former members of the Church of Scientology (Masterson continues to be a member of the church). The actor, 47, was discovered responsible of two of three counts of forcible rape throughout his retrial in Could 2023.
He had pleaded not responsible to the costs in opposition to him. The retrial was known as after 2022’s authentic trial on the identical three counts led to a mistrial when a jury deadlocked, failing to succeed in unanimous verdicts.
Now, in a 242-page appellant’s opening temporary filed on Dec. 18, Masterson’s attorneys allege that key witness testimonies morphed over time and “faulty judicial rulings” skewed the jury’s view of the proof in opposition to him.
In a press release posted to the Cliff Gardner regulation places of work web site, the attorneys mentioned there have been “two elementary flaws” in Masterson’s convictions, one being the aforementioned skewed view and the second a “beautiful quantity” of alleged exculpatory proof “by no means introduced to the jury.”
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His authorized workforce goes on to say that these are solely “one half” of their deliberate problem to his convictions, and they’re working in direction of Masterson’s “full exoneration.”
Masterson initially filed a discover of attraction in November 2023. In January, the decide in his legal case, Charlaine Olmedo, denied him bail pending his attraction, calling him a flight threat.
In June of 2023, Olmedo dominated Masterson’s ex-defence attorneys, Tom Mesereau and Sharon Appelbaum, leaked delicate trial data to the Church of Scientology concerning the ladies who accused Masterson of rape, the Los Angeles Occasions reported.
The confidential discovery materials from Masterson’s rape trial was despatched to a different Church of Scientology lawyer, Vicki Podberesky, and it contained police stories from the victims and their private data, together with dwelling addresses and banking particulars.
The leak to Podberesky was uncovered throughout Masterson’s retrial, when Los Angeles County Deputy District Lawyer Reinhold Mueller mentioned he acquired an electronic mail from Podberesky — who was not affiliated with the trial — that included an attachment of 570 pages of discovery materials. It’s unclear if the attachment was despatched accidentally.
Podberesky tried to say prosecutors have been soliciting false testimony from victims with the intention to wrongfully convict Masterson of rape. Olmedo mentioned the allegation was “demonstrably false.”
The Church of Scientology has denied all accusations of wrongdoing and was not a celebration in Masterson’s trial. Podberesky advised the Los Angeles Occasions she legally obtained the confidential trial paperwork however didn’t say how.
Mesereau and Applebaum represented Masterson in court docket till Could 2022, after they have been changed by different Scientology-affiliated attorneys.
Masterson’s attorneys had additionally been accused by Mueller of undesirable contact with the jurors in his case. In September of 2023, Olmedo despatched a letter to each authorized groups stating that a number of jurors complained of “undesirable contact at their properties or work by members of the protection workforce,” in response to a Los Angeles Occasions report.
Mueller and his workforce tried to color Masterson as a serial rapist who has been protected by high-ranking officers within the Church of Scientology. They claimed Masterson, on separate events, put medicine into the drinks of a longtime girlfriend and two different ladies he knew via the church earlier than he raped them.
After the retrial’s responsible verdict was introduced, a shocked Masterson was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs and he stays in state custody.
Bijou Phillips, his spouse of 12 years, filed for divorce from the actor in September of final 12 months.
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