The church has maintained that it is not a party to the case, and should not be implicated. She added that she “felt sufficiently intimidated by the repercussions.” “If you have a legal situation with another member of the church, you may not handle it externally from the church, and it’s very explicit,” she said, according to court documents.
Trout and who was raped in 2003, did not tell the church but shared it with her mother and best friend. The third accuser, who was identified as N. Jen B., who sought the church’s permission to report the rape, later received a written response from the church’s international chief justice that cited a 1965 policy letter, which for her raised concerns she could be ousted from her family and friends if she reported a fellow Scientologist to the police. That officer told her, according to the documents, “You can’t rape someone that you’re in a relationship with” and “Don’t say that word again.” In May, the jury deadlocked on the charge related to her accusation.Ĭourt documents also said that Masterson had raped another woman, identified as Jen B., in April 2003 after he gave her a drink. and who said Masterson raped her in 2001 when they were in a relationship, reported the rape to the church’s “ethics officer,” according to court documents. One accuser, who was identified as Christina B. The church denied that it pressured the victims.
#ROBERT PARKS VALLETTA NET WORTH TRIAL#
The case was closely watched not only because it involved a Hollywood star on trial in the #MeToo era but also because two of the women had accused the Church of Scientology, to which they also belonged, of discouraging them from reporting the rapes to the authorities.
The legal case against Masterson began unfolding in 2020, when he was charged with three counts. The retrial this spring lasted more than a month before Masterson was found guilty of two counts of rape by force or fear. The mixed verdict was delivered after a jury deadlocked on all three charges in November, resulting in a mistrial. The jury deadlocked on a charge that the actor had raped a third woman. In May, Masterson was convicted of raping two women at his home in the Hollywood Hills in the early 2000s. The case against Masterson drew widespread attention, and at times mirrored a television saga, in part because of accusations that the Church of Scientology, to which Masterson belonged, had tried to discourage his accusers. More recently, he appeared in the Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was fired from the show in 2017 after the rape allegations emerged. Masterson played Steven Hyde on “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006 and also starred in the television comedy “Men at Work” from 2012 to 2014. Masterson, 47, will be eligible for parole in 20 years, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“Though we have great respect for the jury, and for our system of justice, sometimes they get it wrong - and that’s what happened here,” Holley said, noting that Masterson maintains his innocence.
Shawn Holley, a lawyer for Masterson, told reporters outside the courtroom that she was “very disappointed” in the sentence, noting that a team of lawyers had reviewed the case and found “a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues” that they planned to to use in appeals.
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