"From TV Star to Courtroom Drama: Danny Masterson’s Conviction Survives, Sparking Scientology Secrets to Surface!"
Added on October 28, 2026 inFree CelebrityNews
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Danny Masterson‘s latest legal challenge ended in defeat, with a California appeals court upholding his rape convictions and 30-year-to-life prison sentence. The former “That ’70s Show” actor argued that the trial judge showed bias against his Scientology religion, and errors during his trial undermined his right to a fair hearing. However, a three-judge panel rejected his arguments, leaving his 2023 convictions intact.
In 2023, Danny Masterson was found guilty of two counts of forcible rape and was sentenced to 30 years to life in prison. His legal team initiated the appeal process two months after his sentencing, and on October 27, a three-judge panel heard the oral arguments.
His legal team claimed that Masterson did not get a fair trial, noting that exculpatory evidence was left out of the process. They also alleged the victims had “financial self-interest” in the case, pointing out that the women filed a civil lawsuit against the actor. Moreover, the attorneys said the trial judge, Judge Charlaine Olmedo, exhibited anti-Scientology bias, which violated their client’s First Amendment rights, as reported by the Courthouse News Service.
The outcome didn’t go in Masterson’s favor, as the panel upheld his conviction, declaring, “We affirm the judgment.”
Masterson has been a member of the Church of Scientology since he was 15 years old. His accusers were members as well. Reports indicate that the women initially reported the assaults to church officials rather than law enforcement, fearing the consequences due to the strict doctrines of the church, as reporting a fellow member is deemed a “suppressive act” that may lead to excommunication.
Scientology was central in the trial, and despite Masterson’s argument that the trial judge was biased against his faith, the justices said the jury was not asked to evaluate the church’s beliefs. Instead, evidence against the church was presented to explain why the victims delayed reporting the assault to authorities.
Masterson’s attorney, Cliff Gardner, said the appellate court’s decision disregarded evidence presented that the women who accused the actor had made statements describing their sexual encounters with him as “consensual and positive.”
“Danny is serving a life sentence for crimes he did not commit. 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,” Gardner said, per the Los Angeles Times.
His legal team is now pursuing a review of the case by the California Supreme Court while also considering other legal options over the new evidence that has since been discovered since his 2023 trial.
Regardless of the jury being hung on Count 3, Danny Masterson is now facing 30 years to life in prison. And Count 3 doesn’t mean those who weren’t decided didn’t believe her (her story is very compelling), it could mean they didn’t think the State proved their case.
— Mick 🅰️🐘 (@RTR7890) May 31, 2023
In 2022, a judge declared a mistrial after the 12 jury members reported a deadlock on all three counts, with the majority of jurors favoring acquittal.
“We are not even close to coming to a unanimous decision on any count, and are convinced this will not change,” the jury’s note to the judge read, as reported by Variety.
The second trial began in 2023. The jury unanimously convicted him on two counts but deadlocked on the third, with an 8-4 vote in favor of conviction, prompting a mistrial on that charge. The accuser was Masterson’s girlfriend of five years, and their history reportedly contributed to the jury’s disagreement.
Masterson is serving his sentence at the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo, California. With his indeterminate sentence of 30 years to life, he does not have a guaranteed prison release date and could spend the rest of his life incarcerated.
Under California law, inmates convicted of violent crimes must serve 85 percent of their sentence before becoming eligible for parole. For Masterson, that means his earliest possible parole hearing would be in 2042, when he is 66 years old.
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