A woman who used to date”That 70s Show” actor Danny Masterson stated in court that she woke to find him raping her as she slept and alleged he struck her when she attempted to fight again.
On Tuesday prosecutors said they’d show evidence that he raped a 23-year-old girl sometime in 2001, a 28-year-old woman in April of 2003, along with a 23-year-old girl between October and December of 2003.
Masterson’s lawyer Thomas Mesereau denied the episode described in courtroom Wednesday was rape.
The woman, who had been in a relationship with Masterson for six years, was the second of those three to testify in Los Angeles Superior Court at a preliminary hearing to determine whether there is enough evidence to dictate Masterson to stand trial on three counts of rape. Masterson has pleaded not guilty, and Mesereau has said he would prove his innocence.
“I tried pushing him off and saying no more I dont need to have intercourse with you,” the girl, identified in court only as Christina B., stated. “He would not stop. I did something that I knew would make him mad and likely to get me off. He’s these principles,’no touch hair principle,”no touch face principle.’ He had this thing around his own hair, so I knew if I pulled it really, really tough, he’d get off me. However, what he did was that he struck me.”
The November episode Christine B. described came in November 2001, in the home she and Masterson would share throughout their six-year relationship. Under questioning from Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller, she said he hit her across the face with a loosely held fist then finally ceased, spat on her and called her”white trash.”
Christine B. chose to be identified with her first name in court, and it has spoken publicly about the assault before.
Throughout cross-examination, Mesereau said that she had been telling another story than she had in her interviews with police and prosecutors.
“You never stated he was having sex on you, did you, you said he was trying to, right?” Mesereau asked.
The defense subsequently played a tape of a meeting with a police detective with Christine B. saying”right” when the officers requested if Masterson was trying to have sex with her, then performed a recording of a meeting with Mueller where she stated Masterson had been”putting himself .”
In court, she responded that she had been using different language to describe the exact same thing.
Christine B. said in another event a month after that is not mentioned in the charges she blacked out, woke in pain and learned from Masterson he’d raped her while she was unconscious. That prompted her to visit ethics officials at the Church of Scientology, which she’d joined in 1996 at the urging of Masterson, a dominant member.
She said the officials convinced her she was not raped, and she did not go to authorities to report Masterson before 15 years had passed.
When Christine B. went to police in 2016, she made it to report that the next incident, not the sole Masterson was eventually charged with.
Mesereau cited this as evidence that she did not believe she had been raped the first time. He challenged Christine B. about the issue, asking why she had not considered it rape originally.
She broke into tears as she clarified the relationship had brought her to expect such things.
“Since it was ordinary!” She cried.
The church has loomed large in the case in which the suspect and his three accusers were all devoted members in the time of the allegations from 2001 till 2003.
The 2 girls who have testified at the hearing both spoke to church officials long before they went to police.
Mesereau said Tuesday before the hearing began that the prosecution is indicated by”spiritual bias in the most obvious form” from the case’s prosecutors and direct detective.
And before Wednesdayhe also continued his cross-examination of the very first watch, identified in court as Jen B., by trying to tie her into prominent voices who’ve spoken out against Scientology, including celebrity Leah Remini.
Jen B. confessed filming a meeting with Remini because of her series”Scientology and the Aftermath” in 2017, stating she did so because she feared that no charges would be brought against Masterson and she believed it could be her only opportunity to be noticed.
She said no when Mesereau twice asked her if she was paid for the meeting.
Mesereau also asked Christine B. whether she had gone to authorities at the urging of Remini, which she denied.
Testimony continues Thursday.
