Danny Masterson has been sentenced to 30 years-to-life in prison for the rapes of two women.
The disgraced actor received the maximum possible sentence after he was found guilty of two counts of forcible rape against two women in the retrial of his rape case, which concluded this past May. Jurors deadlocked on a third count of rape, with an 8-4 vote in favor of conviction after more than a week of deliberation.
He will be eligible for parole in 2053, when he is 77 years old.
At the sentencing, the three women told the judge how Masterson had ruined their lives and asked for him to be sentenced to life behind bars. One woman called him “a true coward and heartless monster,” while another said she had been diagnosed with PTSD. The other woman addressed Masterson directly, saying, “I still have to contend with what you did to me that night… That takes a life’s worth of therapy to repair. Every time I think I’m okay, that rape comes back to me.”
Masterson was arrested in 2020 and freed on a $3 million bail after being accused of drugging and raping three different women between 2001 and 2003, while he was still starring on That ’70s Show. His first trial ended with a hung jury in late 2022.
All three women belonged to the Church of Scientology at the time, as does Masterson. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Masterson used his standing in the church to avoid consequences for his actions. The victims also said that Scientology officials discouraged them from reporting the rapes to police.
“Like all predators, the defendant carefully sought out his prey,” said Deputy District Attorney Ariel Anson during the closing arguments. “The church taught his victims that rape isn’t rape, that you cause this and above all you aren’t allowed to go to law enforcement. What better hunting ground? In Scientology, the defendant is a celebrity and he’s untouchable.”
For his part, Masterson has denied all wrongdoing and did not testify at either trial. He was fired from Netflix’s The Ranch in 2017, and was also left out of the That ’70s Show sequel series That ’90s Show.
