The primary defense lawyer, Phillip Cohen, and Deputy Los Angeles County District Attorney Reinhold Mueller made their closing statements in actor Danny Masterson‘s (That 70s Show, Face/Off) alleged rape trial this week, according to NBC News. With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the jury will probably reach their verdict before the end of the week. Masterson is being charged with three counts of forcible rape and has pleaded not guilty.
According to Deadline, if found guilty, Masterson could face up to 45 years in prison.
After weeks of the victims reciting their alleged sexual assaults by Masterson, both the defense and the prosecution provided precisely where they first began–arguing about whether the engagements in question were consensual sex or forced, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“When you review the evidence you are to consider evidence that is reasonable and only evidence that is reasonable,” Deputy D.A. Mueller said to jurors in the Masterson alleged rape trial yesterday afternoon in his final statement via Deadline. “If something is unreasonable to you, you must reject it.”
“[The prosecution] has ignored the blatant, obvious, overwhelming contradictions and fabrications that each Jane Doe has given,” Cohen declared. “It is not just maddening, to me, it is horrifying,” Cohan added of “the government’s case,” via Deadline.
The investigation into the actor was assembled in 2017 when his three accusers came forward with allegations momentarily after Harvey Weinstein was publicly accused of sexually assaulting multiple women, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The actor was abruptly fired from Netflix’s comedy The Ranch at the end of 2017 as claims became known. Masterson has always denied he had nonconsensual sex between 2001 and 2003 with the alleged victims or anyone else, according to Deadline.
Masterson and his three accusers were all a part of the Church of Scientology. Masterson was first arrested in 2020 and has been free on $3 million bail. In addition to the criminal case, there also is a currently paused civil case that the three alleged victims and others filed in 2019 against Scientology and Masterson.