Danny Masterson's rape conviction appeal is denied after 3 years

Former "That '70s Show" star Danny Masterson has had his 2023 rape convictions upheld by a California appeals court.

A three-judge panel affirmed Masterson's convictions on two counts of forcible rape in an 89-page opinion filed Oct. 27. The actor, who pleaded not guilty to the charges in 2020, has repeatedly maintained that the encounters were consensual.

The 50-year-old, who is serving 30 years to life in prison, was convicted in May 2023 of raping two women in separate incidents in 2003, at the height of his fame from the Fox sitcom. His lawyers filed a notice of appeal in November 2023, months after jurors found him guilty on two counts but deadlocked on a third.

Masterson's attorneys, Cliff Gardner and Eric Multhaup, shared a statement on Oct. 27 that said the California Second District Court of Appeal's decision to deny his appeal and petition for writ of habeas corpus – which requested an evidentiary hearing in the case by a different California Supreme Court judge – were "fundamentally wrong."

They vowed to take the case to the California Supreme Court "while separately continuing to pursue habeas corpus relief."

The attorneys allege there is "substantial" evidence that was never presented to jury members during his 2022 trial – which ended with the judge declaring a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury that leaned toward acquitting him – and his 2023 retrial. According to the lawyers, before reporting their assaults to police, the women Masterson is convicted of raping shared statements with friends that cast their sexual experiences with the actor in a favorable light.

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"Danny is serving a life sentence for crimes he did not commit," Gardner said. "No one in California – not defendants and not victims who have actually been the victim of a sex crime – is safer by virtue of today's unfortunate decision."

Among the arguments Masterson's team made in their appeal was a claim that the judge overseeing his case "displayed non-neutrality, even hostility, toward his religion."

"Those statements, viewed in context, evidence no animus or departure from neutrality regarding Scientology," the three-judge panel wrote in their opinion.

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Masterson and his victims were all members of the Church of Scientology, and the women alleged church officials dissuaded them from reporting their assaults to law enforcement. The church denied the allegations.

One of the women, identified as J.B., told police in 2004 that Masterson "smothered her with a pillow, pinned her hands over her head and choked her while raping her" and provided photos that allegedly showed bruises across her body from the assault, the judges' opinion noted. N.T., the other woman Masterson was convicted of raping, told her mother about the rape within days, and two friends testified that she told them about the nonconsensual sex in 2003.

If you are a survivor of sexual assault, offers support through the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673) and Hotline.RAINN.org and en Español RAINN.org/es.