Read this:
https://apnews.com/article/danny-masterson-sentencing-rape-trial-fd7a10eda44d0e3ddde582d4c7053eb6
‘That ’70s Show’ actor Danny Masterson gets 30 years to life in prison for rapes of 2 women
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge sentenced “That ’70s Show” show star Danny Masterson to 30 years to life in prison Thursday for raping two women, giving them some relief after they spoke in court about the decades of damage he inflicted.
“When you raped me, you stole from me,” said one woman who Masterson was convicted of raping in 2003. “That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.”
“You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent,” she said. “The world is better off with you in prison.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo handed down the sentence to the 47-year-old Masterson after hearing statements from the women, and pleas for fairness from defense attorneys.
The actor, who has been in custody since May, sat in court wearing a suit. Masterson watched the women without visible reaction as they spoke. He maintains his innocence and his attorneys plan to appeal.
The other woman Masterson was found guilty of raping said he “has not shown an ounce of remorse for the pain he caused.” She told the judge, “I knew he belonged behind bars for the safety of all the women he came into contact with. I am so sorry, and I’m so upset. I wish I’d reported him sooner to the police.”
After an initial jury failed to reach verdicts on three counts of rape in December and a mistrial was declared, prosecutors retried Masterson on all three counts earlier this year.
Masterson waived his right to speak before he was sentenced and had no visible reaction after the judge’s decision, nor did the many family members sitting beside him. His wife, actor Bijou Phillips, was tearful earlier in the hearing.
At his second trial, a jury found Masterson guilty of two of three rape counts on May 31. Both attacks took place in Masterson’s Hollywood-area home in 2003, when he was at the height of his fame on the Fox network sitcom “That ’70s Show.”
They could not reach a verdict on the third count, an allegation that Masterson also raped a longtime girlfriend.
The judge sentenced the actor after rejecting a defense motion for a new trial that was argued earlier Thursday. The sentence was the maximum allowed by law. It means Masterson will be eligible for parole after serving 25 1/2 years, but can be held in prison for life.
“I know that you’re sitting here steadfast in your claims of innocence, and thus no doubt feeling victimized by a justice system that has failed you,” Olmedo told Masterson before handing down the sentence. “But Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person’s voice, and choice. One way or another you will have to come to terms with your prior actions, and their consequences.”
The defense sought to have sentences for the two convictions run simultaneously, and asked for a sentence of 15 years to life. The prosecution asked for the full 30 years to life sentence Masterson was eligible for.
“It’s his life that will be impacted by what you decide today,” Masterson’s lawyer Shawn Holley told the judge before the sentencing. “And the life of his 9-year-old daughter, who means the world to him, and to whom he means the world.”
After the hearing, Holley said in a statement that “Mr. Masterson did not commit the crimes for which he was convicted.” She said a team of appellate lawyers has identified “a number of significant evidentiary and constitutional issues” with his convictions, which they are confident will be overturned.
Prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his prominence in the Church of Scientology — where all three women were also members at the time — to avoid consequences for decades after the attacks, and the women blamed the church for their hesitancy in going to police about Masterson.
At the sentencing hearing, one of the women, who like Masterson was born into the church, said she was shunned and ostracized for going to authorities in 2004.
“I lost everything. I lost my religion. I lost my ability to contact anyone I’d known or loved my entire life,” she said. “I didn’t exist outside the Scientology world. I had to start my life all over at 29. It seemed the world I knew didn’t want me to live.”
The church said in a statement after the trial that it has “no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone — Scientologists or not — to law enforcement.” It has also denied ever harassing any of the women.
No charges came from the woman’s 2004 police report, but she returned to authorities when she learned they were investigating Masterson again in 2016. The other two women had waited more than 15 years before reporting him to anyone other than church officials.
The women testified at both trials that in 2003, they were at Masterson’s home when he drugged them before violently raping them.
They said Thursday that the trauma plagued them for the decades that followed, hurting their relationships and filling their lives with fear. But they said his sentencing gave them some relief.
“I don’t have to carry your shame around with me anymore,” the first woman who spoke said. “Now you have to hold that shame. You have to sit in a cell and hold it.”
Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 until 2006.
He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.
While that investigation began before a wave of women shook Hollywood with stories about Harvey Weinstein in October 2017, the conviction and sentencing of Masterson still represents a major #MeToo era success for Los Angeles prosecutors, along with the conviction of Weinstein himself last year.
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- I’ve never watched “That 70’s Show” so I knew nothing about Masterson before his rape trial. To me, he was just another Hollowierd idiot.
- That Masterson is a Scientologist, as were his victims, does not surprize me. After all, cults like that rape people’s minds, why not their bodies too?
That’s bad. But this is WORSE:
https://www.cbsnews.com/losangeles/news/ashton-kutcher-mila-kunis-wrote-letters-in-support-of-danny-masterson/
Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis wrote letters in support of Danny Masterson
Actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis wrote letters to a judge saying they considered fellow “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson a “role model” before he was sentenced Thursday to 30 years to life in state prison for raping two women at his Hollywood Hills home about two decades ago.
Kutcher and his wife, Kunis, who also appeared on “That ’70s Show” with Masterson between 1998 and 2006, each credited Masterson for his commitment to his wife and daughter and for discouraging the use of drugs.
Kutcher wrote in a letter to Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo that he was 20 when he met Masterson in 1998 and “he instantly became a friend, dedicated co-worker, and role model to me. And has remained as such for 25 years.”
Kutcher wrote in the letter that Masterson is “an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being,” that the two spent hundreds of hours working together and “set an extraordinary standard around how you treat other people.”
He wrote that he and Masterson, the father of a 9-year-old daughter with actress-wife Bijou Phillips Masterson, “have spent countless hours together with our kids and he is among few people that I would trust to be alone with my son and daughter.”
“While I’m aware that the judgment has been cast as guilty on two counts of rape by force and fear and the victims have a great desire for justice, I hope that my testament to his character is taken into consideration in sentencing. I do not believe he is an ongoing harm to society and having his daughter raised without a present father would (be) a tertiary injustice in and of itself.”
In her letter to the judge, Kunis wrote that she “could sense his innate goodness and genuine nature” from the very beginning after meeting him and that he has “proven to be an amazing friend, confidant, and, above all, an outstanding older brother figure to me.”
“I wholeheartedly vouch for Danny Masterson’s exceptional character and the tremendous positive influence he has had on me and the people around him. His dedication to leading a drug-free life and the genuine care he extends to others make him an outstanding role model and friend,” wrote Kunis.
Also writing letters in support of Masterson were fellow “That ’70s Show” co-stars Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith. Other celebrities also wrote letters about Masterson, including actor Giovanni Ribisi and Masterson’s brother-in-law, actor Billy Baldwin.
During Masterson’s sentencing hearing Thursday, the judge noted that she had received a number of letters on behalf of Masterson and had read all of them.
The judge told the 47-year-old actor shortly before imposing the sentence that she knew that he was “sitting here steadfastly on your claims of innocence.”
“Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here,” the judge said, telling him that his actions had taken away another person’s voice and choice and that the victims each reported the rapes to someone shortly afterward.
3. WHAT IDIOCY! That’s an example of the “Daddy never raped me” defense. If you rape ANYONE, it does not matter how nice you were to others!
Next:
4. This shit reminds me of another case of a questionable person supporting a known criminal: https://dalehusband.com/2014/09/11/michael-shermer-traitor/ I eventually learned enough disgusting things about Shermer that I put him on my “Enemies of Truth and Justice” list. He is a fraud and maybe Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis are too. I think if you defend a rapist, you might as well be one!
5. To put it bluntly, all the references to Masterson being anti-drug mean NOTHING to me, but are purely a result of most Americans being brainwashed about how “evil” certain drugs are. People who take drugs are only damaging themselves, and people who deal drugs are taking part in a market of willing sellers and willing buyers, which is actually the essence of capitalism. RAPISTS, on the other hand, damage OTHERS! So Masterson is worse than a drug dealer!
And finally:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ashton-kutcher-resigns-anti-child-trafficking-nonprofit-danny-masterson-character-letter-mila-kunis/
Ashton Kutcher resigns from anti-child trafficking nonprofit over Danny Masterson character letter
Actor Ashton Kutcher has stepped down as board chair of an anti-child trafficking group that he co-founded in the wake of criticism he received over a letter of support he penned on behalf of his former “That ’70s Show” co-star Danny Masterson following Masterson’s criminal conviction for raping two women.
In a resignation letter posted on the website of the group Thorn, Kutcher wrote that he “cannot allow my error in judgment to distract from our efforts and the children we serve.”
In June, the 43-year-old Masterson was found guilty of raping two women at his Hollywood Hills home in the early 2000s.
Both Kutcher and his wife Mila Kunis, who also starred on the popular sitcom, were among dozens of colleagues, relatives and friends who wrote letters of support to a Los Angeles County judge ahead of Masterson’s sentencing hearing last week asking for leniency.
Despite the letters, Masterson was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, the maximum allowable under the law.
In his letter to L.A. County Superior Court Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo, Kutcher called Masterson a “role model” and “an extraordinarily honest and intentional human being” who “set an extraordinary standard around how you treat other people.”
Kutcher also wrote that he believes Masterson is not an ongoing harm to society and that the accused actor is one of the few people he would trust to be alone with his children.
Following significant backlash, Kutcher and Kunis posted a video to social media in which they said they did not mean to discount the trauma and experiences of Masterson’s victims.
“The letters were not written to question the legitimacy of the judicial system or the validity of the jury’s ruling,” Kunis said. “We support victims.”
In his resignation letter Thursday, Kutcher wrote that he came to the decision to resign after he and Kunis “spent several days of listening, personal reflection, learning, and conversations with survivors and the employees and leadership at Thorn.”
He went on to give a “heartfelt apology to all victims of sexual violence and everyone at Thorn who I hurt by what I did.”
Kutcher, Kunis and Masterson co-starred on “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006. Masterson later starred with Kutcher in the Netflix comedy series “The Ranch,” which ran for four seasons from 2016 to 2020. However, Masterson only appeared in the first three seasons and was fired from the show in December 2017 after the rape allegations surfaced.
6. Yeah, I’m glad you resigned because if you hadn’t, you should have been FIRED! I don’t want creeps like you and your wife around kids or advocating for victims of sexual abuse at all. Credibility is everything to such groups….and you clearly have none!
7. And I hope you idiots never get another acting job as well!
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