Danny Masterson Says Scientology Shouldn’t Have Been Part Of Rape Trial & Judge Was Biased: “Evidence Of Force Was Marginal At Best,” Petition Claims Of Assaults

Danny Masterson wants his 2023 sexual assault convictions, and 30-year prison sentence overturned because of an allegedly lousy defense lawyer, a biased judge, and the smearing of Scientology practices and policies by prosecutors.

In fact, a habeas corpus petition filed today with the Appeals court specifically points the finger at former Scientologist and church critic Leah Remini for Masterson’s downfall too.

The currently incarcerated Masterson and his latest attorney Eric S. Multhaup go on to state that in any of the rapes the “evidence of force was marginal at best.” Declaring the verdict and subsequent stint in the joint to be “a major miscarriage of justice” because of evidence not shown or heard by the jury in his second trial, the That ’70s Show star continues to insist he is totally innocent.

Put mildly, there’s a lot to unpack here.

Let’s start with noting that representatives for Masterson’s ex-lead defense lawyer Philip K Cohen said the attorney had no comment on the accusations in the actor’s petition. Unsurprisingly, the LA County District Attorney’s office and the David Miscavige-led Scientology did not response to Deadline’s request for feedback of Masterson’s wide raging and blaming 183-page filing.

Out on bail of $3 million until May 31, 2023  when the guilty verdict in his second trial on two of three counts of sexual assault was handed down Masterson was arrested in 2020 over the alleged assaults that occurred between 2001 and 2003 in his Hollywood Hills house. The one-tine prominent Scientology member was facing up to 45 years behind bars if found guilty on all three rape counts in the first trial and the subsequent retrial. He was sentenced to three decades of being locked up by LASC After being given his three-decade long sentence by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlaine Olmedo on September 7, 2023, Masterson, who remains a member of Scientology, was immediately taken into custody at that time, and later denied bail as a “flight risk.”

 In November 2023, defense attorneys filed a notice of appeal — with this petition now a sequel of sorts.

Citing the 11 claims in the petition to vacate Masterson’s sentence, the document fled Monday bluntly says “most of these numerous claims are attributable to an unexpected and unreasonable failure of trial counsel to present any of the mountain of exculpatory evidence that had been amassed by predecessor counsel.”

As well as being annoyed that initial lead lawyer Shawn Holley had to step back not long before Masterson’s first trial (which ended in a mistrial) because of a conflict, the petition pounds Cohen for “resting without presenting defense evidence” in both trials.

“In sum, the jury saw only the tip of the iceberg of available defense evidence in the form of the complaining witnesses’ inconsistent statements while the wealth of directly exculpatory evidence went unused for no viable tactical reason,” Masterson’s dense and repeatative petition says, which acknowledging the Appeals Court may be “initially skeptical that such a debacle could occur in a high profile case in which petitioner retained experienced attorneys.”

Oddly, while noting Cohen’s success of sorts in the first trial, Masterson then takes a leap of legal faith. His petition says the actor “would have very likely obtained an acquittal but for counsel’s failure to exercise due diligence and make an informed decision whether to present an affirmative defense.”

Okay.

Taking various swipes at LASC Judge Olmedo for displaying alleged bias in the cases, the petition additionally slams the LAPD by exclaiming that the cops’ probe into the rape claims “was compromised in many respects by the entanglement with (Leah) Remini.”

Ignoring that the LAPD were actually portrayed at points in the trials as being tight with Scientology, the petition spotlights the ex-King of Queens stars’ award-winning Scientology and the Aftermath series. With a pretty wide berth, it says: “Remini had a major financial stake in fomenting the police investigation and prosecution of petitioner, because her television series would attain increased credibility and profitability from the fact that the LAPD and District Attorney were investigating the claims.”

And then, ignoring later revelations of apparent intimidation by persons perhaps associated with Masterson or Scientology of one Assistant District Attorney on the cases, there’s the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office’s strategy for trial #2.

“The primary change was to prominently portray the Church of Scientology, of which petitioner was a member, as a villainous force that had discouraged the complaining witnesses from reporting their allegations of rape to the police in 2003, and that was actively harassing the complaining witnesses in retaliation for making their complaints in 2017,” the document pitches.

Both of the women Masterson was convicted of raping two years ago were members of the Church at the time of the assualts

Stewing behind bars in the California Men’s Colony in San Luis Obispo for the past two years, Masterson already has his appeal underway over his two rape convictions, as we noted. He is facing a civil suit from a number of the women he assaulted over the years. Divorced since his sentencing from Almost Famous actress Bijou Phillips, who was in attendance every day of both trials, Masterson is also facing his 11-year old daughter having her name legally changed to her mother’s maiden name.