LOS ANGELES — “That ’70s Present” star Danny Masterson advised the courtroom Monday that he wouldn’t testify at his personal rape trial.
Masterson, who’s charged with three counts of forcible rape, asserted his proper to not testify on the nineteenth day of the intently watched Hollywood trial after Los Angeles County Superior Courtroom Charlaine F. Olmedo requested the sitcom star if he’d consulted his attorneys.
“I’ve, your honor,” Masterson replied.
At that time, Masterson’s protection lawyer Philip Cohen mentioned he was not calling any new witnesses and Olmedo declared that closing arguments would start Tuesday.
Masterson, 46, who has pleaded not responsible to 3 counts of forcible rape and stays free on $3.3 million bail, has denied all of the allegations towards him.
His announcement got here after a fourth lady testified final week that he raped her twice, greater than twenty years in the past after they’d met on a film set. Masterson isn’t charged with raping the lady, an actress recognized in courtroom as Jane Doe #4.
Not like the three girls Masterson is charged with raping, Jane Doe #4 isn’t a former or present member of the Church of Scientology. And she or he testified over the objections of Masterson’s protection crew.
However her testimony final Wednesday mirrored in some ways the testimony of the opposite girls Masterson is charged with raping from 2001 to 2003 at his Hollywood Hills residence.
Cohen made his third request for a mistrial after Jane Doe #4 completed testifying and was once more rebuffed by the decide.
Olmedo had initially denied the prosecution’s request to place Jane Doe #4 on the stand however the decide modified her thoughts after Deputy District Lawyer Reinhold Mueller argued that Cohen had opened the door by suggesting that Masterson’s three different accusers had colluded towards him.
Mueller mentioned the jury needs to be conscious that one other lady is “on the market with comparable expertise with Mr. Masterson who additionally was interviewed” by Los Angeles police detectives.
Masterson stays a member of the Church of Scientology. And whereas Olmedo made it clear early on that the church was not on trial, she allowed testimony by two of Masterson’s accusers who mentioned they had been rebuffed once they advised Scientology officers he had raped them.
Those self same girls additionally testified they had been subjected to stalking and different acts of retaliation by members of the church after they reported the allegations to police.
Scientology spokeswoman Karin Pouw has denied these allegations and insisted that church doctrine requires members to “abide by all of the legal guidelines of the land.”
Scientology was began in 1952 by the science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard. The faith asserts in its official statements of beliefs that man is an immortal religious being with limitless capabilities, and it affords, for a value, one-on-one “auditing” and lessons designed to assist members obtain a “clear” religious state. It strongly opposes the science of psychiatry as “disastrous.”
