Actor Danny Masterson’s rape retrial opens as prosecutor implicates Church of Scientology
Actor Danny Masterson’s rape retrial opens as prosecutor implicates Church of Scientology
Jurors in November deadlocked on three counts of forcible rape against the lifelong Scientologist for alleged attacks in 2001 and 2003. His retrial is to last six weeks.
Actor Danny Masterson’s rape retrial opened Monday in Los Angeles with adjustments to both the defense and prosecution that appear driven by the last jury’s split votes in favor of acquittal.
A second-generation member of the Church of Scientology, 47-year-old Masterson is accused of raping three women in 2001 and 2003.
He was one of the biggest stars on TV at the time of the alleged crimes, playing Steven Hyde on That ’70s Show from 1998 to 2006. He also played Jameson “Rooster” Bennett on the Netflix series The Ranch from 2016 to 2020.
After last year’s mistrial, prosecutors re-ordered their witnesses so that the new jury on Monday heard first from Masterson’s former girlfriend of six years, whom the first jury indicated was the most believable of the three alleged victims.
In a similar restructuring effort, Masterson’s lawyer Philip Cohen emphasized discrepancies between police reports and the women’s previous testimony that the first jury noted in post-mistrial interviews. He also emphasized the three women’s repeated contact with each other despite a detective’s order that they not communicate, and he urged jurors to disregard prosecutors’ emphasis on Scientology.
“This is not a trial — should not be a trial — about Scientology,” Cohen said.
His 90-minute opening statement followed a 2 1/2 hour opening from Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller that emphasized Masterson’s alleged drugging of his victims as well as the Church of Scientology’s involvement in the aftermath of the alleged rapes.
The church forbids members from reporting members who are in good standing to law enforcement, Mueller said.
“There are consequences to reporting another member to law enforcement, you do not do it,” Mueller said. “It can cause you, for lack of a better word, to be ex-communicated from the church.”
The changes in approach had mixed results. Mueller made it through his opening with a single sustained objection — for mentioning a draft of a lawsuit — and no major warnings from Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo. But the judge was so angered by Cohen’s repeated citation of testimony from the previous trial that she sent the jury out of the courtroom in the midst of his opening so she could admonish him.
“Mr. Cohen, please do not use quotes. Do not read in prior testimony,” the judge said.
Before the interruption, Olmedo had sustained several prosecution objections to Cohen’s use of previous trial testimony, including his display of trial transcript excerpts on the overhead.
“Please refrain from reading prior testimony as part of an opening statement,” she said. “The court will not allow that.”
Olmedo told Cohen it was hearsay, but he continued to reference the previous testimony while telling the jury what he expected the alleged victims would say in this trial. He didn’t specifically mention the previous trial or the mistrial because of the deadlocked jury, but he mentioned a previous proceeding, and jurors clearly saw trial transcript excerpts.
Some judges strictly forbid attorneys from so much as mentioning a previous proceeding in front of the jury during a re-trial, but Olmedo did not appear to have addressed the issue pre-trial, instead telling the attorneys during the opening statement interruption on Monday to think of the trials like a double header, with the first and second games completely separate.
After sending the jury out of the courtroom, Olmedo also warned Cohen about arguing during his opening statement. But she said she was giving him “a little leeway like I gave the People a little leeway,” referring to the prosecution. She noted that Cohen, though, didn’t object to Mueller’s arguments in his opening, while Mueller did object to Cohen’s.
The judge also offered this advice to Cohen after both he and Mueller repeatedly identified alleged victims by their first names: “Stop apologizing for using the first name. Just don’t use the first name. Then you won’t have to apologize.”
The legally shaky openings occurred before a packed gallery that included actress Leah Remini, a former Church of Scientology member who’s now an outspoken critic. Olmedo rejected a request by Cohen and his co-counsel, Shawn Holley, to bar Remini from the courtroom because they may call her as a witness, and Remini left the courtroom at the end of the day with Chrissie Carnell-Bixler, Masterson’s ex-girlfriend and the first alleged victim to take the stand this trial.
Carnell-Bixler will return to the stand Tuesday morning. She is not identified by her full name in court, but she’s also publicly identified herself as a “rape and cult survivor” and is currently suing Masterson and the Church of Scientology for harassment in Los Angeles County Superior Court under her full name. The case reached the nation’s highest court, which last October declined to consider a writ petition the Church of Scientology filed trying to reverse a California appellate court ruling that said Carnell-Bixler wasn’t bound by the church’s arbitration requirements.
An Alabama native, Carnell-Bixler moved to Los Angeles for her modeling career and met Masterson in 1996 at a party that Revlon, Inc., hosted for her after she secured a modeling contract with Cindy Crawford. She’s now married to Cedric Bixler-Zavala, the lead singer of the rock band The Mars Volta and a witness for the prosecution.
The first jury voted 7-5 in favor of not guilty for Masterson’s rape charge involving her, which appears to have driven Mueller and Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson’s decision to emphasize her as the first victim.
In the first trial, the first witness was the alleged victim identified as Jen. B., and jurors ended up 10-2 in favor of not guilty for Masterson’s rape charge involving her. Jurors were 8-4 in favor of not guilty for a woman whose asked to be identified only by her initials, N.T.
N.T. said she met Masterson through Scientology after being introduced to it by her mother when she was 16. Jen. B. also was a Church of Scientology member when she met Masterson.
On Monday, Mueller described how the women reported Masterson to the Church of Scientology, beginning with Carnell-Bixler.
“Christina actually believed that reporting Mr. Masterson to the Church is going to help him, that they will have resources there to help him … That they will put him through some kind of ethics program,” Mueller said.
Instead, the church’s ethics officer put Carnell-Bixler through a program, and she was told she had to obey Masterson because he was providing for her. Jen B. also reported Masterson to her church ethics officer and was told she couldn’t use the word “rape” when describing what happened, Mueller said. She then signed a non-disclosure agreement with Masterson in exchange for $400,000.
A Scientology spokeswoman denies wrongdoing and says prosecutors are wrongly trying to use Masterson’s religion against him. A spokeswoman also has taken issue with journalists citing statements from former members that the church is a dangerous cult.
Judge Olmedo ruled Scientology was relevant to five areas of the case: why the alleged victims didn't contact police sooner; their fears of being declared a "suppressive person" within Scientology; the harassment they're allegedly experiencing by the Church of Scientology; and past and present ties to Scientology as it relates to their current state of mind.
Olmedo also is allowing prosecutors to call former Scientology member Claire Headley as an expert witness after prohibiting her testimony in the first trial.
Another major difference in this trial is a change in the so-called “prior bad acts” witness. Actress Tricia Vessey, who said she was fine being identified by her full name, testified in the last trial in accordance with California Evidence Code section 1108, which allows testimony about a defendant’s “past sexual misconduct, alleged and otherwise, when they are currently on trial for a sex crime.”
Now Vessey won’t testify in this trial. Instead, jurors will hear from a Toronto woman identified as Kathleen J., who says Masterson raped her in 2001 during a party while Masterson was there filming the movie Dracula 2000.
Here are a few more things to know about the legal saga surrounding this celebrity trial, which is expected to last six weeks:
The lawyers
Philip Kent Cohen is a solo practitioner based in Santa Monica who defended Masterson in his first trial. He’s a flamboyant dresser known for brightly colored suits. He also is experienced defending people charged with high-profile sex crimes: He represents Grant Robicheaux, the Newport Beach surgeon accused with his girlfriend of drugging and sexually assaulting women.
Cohen defended Masterson in the first trial, with assistance from attorney Karen Goldstein. But he has a new co-counsel for the second trial, and she’s a veteran of the defense bar and celebrity cases. Shawn Holley was busy during the last trial with ex-Dodgers pitcher and accused sexual assailant Trevor Bauer’s arbitration over his Major League Baseball suspension, but she joined Cohen for jury selection last week and is expected to be at the defense table all through trial. (She’ll be cross-examining Carnell-Bixler.)
A partner with Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump Holley LLP, Holley got her start as part of O.J. Simpson’s defense team in his 1995-96 murder trial, which was tried a couple courtrooms away from Judge Olmedo’s courtroom.
Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller is the lead prosecutor. A licensed attorney in California since 2000, he earned his law degree from Pepperdine School of Law. He took a non-traditional route to law school: He earned a bachelor’s degree in pharmaceutical science from Washington State University in 1978, according to his LinkedIn profile, and a pharmacy doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1985.
He’s joined by Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson, a licensed attorney in California since 2014 and a graduate of Loyola Law School and the University of California, Irvine. Both worked the last trial, with Mueller handling the opening statement and closing argument but Anson questioning several witnesses. Their roles for the second trial appear unchanged.
Masterson’s family
Judge Olmedo reserved the side of the gallery closest to the courtroom doors for Masterson’s expansive group of supporters, which include family and friends.
Masterson’s mother, Carol Masterson, is a Hollywood talent management executive and a longtime Scientologist who attended every day of his first trial. She was in court on Monday, as were Masterson’s younger brothers Christopher Masterson, who played eldest brother Francis on the TV show Malcolm in the Middle, and Jordan Masterson, who played in Mark in the movie The 40-year-old Virgin. Masterson’s other brother, Will Masterson, also was in court. Their sister is Alanna Masterson, who was Tara Chambler on the TV show The Walking Dead.
Danny Masterson’s wife, actress Bijou Phillips, attended every day of the first trial and is expected to do the same with the second. She’s often joined by her older half sister, singer Chynna Phillips, who was in the band Wilson Phillips with the daughters of Beach Boy Brian Wilson. Chynna wasn’t in court on Monday, but her sister MacKenzie was.
The Phillips sisters’ father was John Phillips, the late singer of the Mamas & the Papas. Chynna’s mother is Michelle Phillips, the band’s other lead singer, and her husband is actor Billy Baldwin, the second youngest of the four Baldwin brothers. Baldwin was in court for some of the first trial but was not in court on Monday.
The judge
Los Angeles County Superior Court has about 450 judicial officers, so it’s basic math that at least a few of them are going to be absolutely horrific.
Fortunately, Judge Charlaine Olmedo is not one of them, at least to journalists. She is a shining light in a sea of slow, inefficient judges who openly hate the press and seem to embrace misery as a trial management tactic.
Not only does she allow credentialed reporters to use laptops in the back row of the gallery to take notes, she is downright nice to us when she gets a chance.
Last trial, she allowed us to sit in her courtroom while the jury deliberated. She compiled a list of nearby restaurants for us with notes about their menus, and she went so far as to print out the menu of a fish taco restaurant that delivers to the courthouse. She also brought in leftover breakfast burritos for us one morning.
The judge also has a sense of humor: Underground Bunker journalist Tony Ortega reported last trial that when an attorney on another case said a sketch he saw of the judge on TV looked like the “Goth” version of her, she remarked, “How did they know what I looked like in college?”
All that stuff may seem like an aside and it of course is, but how a judge treats reporters also can be indicative of their overall treatment of the public and their understanding of a judge’s crucial role in democracy. And Judge Olmedo is fantastic. (Though she is bound by the system within she works and last week disappointedly referred a reporter who wanted a copy of a witness list to the communications office.)
The judge has been on the Los Angeles County Superior Court bench for 21 years. She earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a law degree from Loyola Law School before spending five years as a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney, from 1989 to 1994. She was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California from 1994 until Gov. Gray Davis appointed her to the bench in 2002. Someone told me she was in the DOJ’s organized crime section and “was very well liked.”
As one of several judges assigned to long-cause criminal cases, Olmedo handles complex and sometimes high-profile cases that can take years to adjudicate. When I stopped by jury selection last week, I heard her remark to the lawyers that she’d just finished trying a multi-count, weeks-long murder case so please forgive the state of her chambers. (I heard a testimony read back the jury requested, and the case involves the Mexican Mafia. The jury still was deliberating on Monday.)
The judge does really lay into the attorneys sometimes, like on Monday with Cohen, which seemed driven in part by a lack of pre-trial discussion about how much the first trial can be cited. But some of the lawyering that goes on in front of her really is atrocious, and as a former federal prosecutor, Olmedo embodies what someone told me a while back about deputy district attorneys hating judges who were former AUSAs because they “make them, you know, follow law and stuff.”
The previous trial
The first trial began Oct. 11 and stretched through November. It overlapped with disgraced Hollywood titan and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial, which was tried in a courtroom on the opposite end of the downtown criminal courthouse’s 9th floor, where Olmedo and the other long-cause criminal case judges are assigned.
The original jury first announced midway through its third day of deliberations on Nov. 18 that it was unable to decide on any of Masterson’s three charges. But instead of declaring a mistrial, Judge Olmedo did what many California state court judges do and told them they hadn’t deliberated long enough to consider all the evidence.
Jurors were told to return Nov. 28, but two jurors reported positive COVID diagnoses on Nov. 27, so Olmedo replaced them with two alternates and the jury was instructed to begin deliberations anew. The new jury then announced Nov. 30 they were deadlocked on all counts, with most favoring acquittal, so Olmedo declared a mistrial.
As I reported above, jurors voted 10-2 in favor of not guilty for alleged victim Jen B., 8-4 in favor of not guilty for a woman identified in press reports by her initials, N.T., and 7-5 in favor of not guilty for Chrissie Carnell-Bixler.
Prosecutors announced Jan. 10 they would be retrying Masterson, and Olmedo rejected a defense motion to dismiss the charges.
I covered the first trial for Law & Crime News. Here are my articles:
Nov. 30: Judge Declares Mistrial in That ’70s Show Star Danny Masterson’s Rape Trial After Jury Deadlocks Again, with Most Favoring Acquittal
Nov. 18: Judge Orders Deadlocked Jury in That ’70s Show Actor Danny Masterson’s Rape Trial to Return After Thanksgiving
Nov. 15: As Defense Fumes at Focus on Scientology, Prosecutor Calls That ’70s Show Star Danny Masterson ‘a Rapist’ During Closing Arguments
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