LOS ANGELES — “That ’70s Present” actor Danny Masterson filed a petition Monday for his two rape convictions and lengthy jail sentence to be thrown out, saying that his trial lawyer did not name key witnesses and introduce important proof which may have exonerated him.
The petition for habeas corpus filed with California’s 2nd District Courtroom of Attraction argues that lawyer Philip Cohen didn’t characterize Masterson correctly on the 2023 retrial that ended with the actor being convicted of raping two ladies at his Los Angeles residence in 2003. He was sentenced to 30 years to life in jail.
The petition additionally argues that the trial decide demonstrated a bias in opposition to the Church of Scientology, permitting an “unconstitutional intrusion” into the church’s doctrine and a misinterpretation of its scripture.
Masterson is a member of the church, whose practices had been a serious challenge at his trial, and the ladies are former members.
The petition says that Cohen spoke to solely two of the 20 potential witnesses delivered to his consideration by his co-counsel and an investigator. It says the witnesses included some who would have testified that the ladies spoke favorably of the sexual relationships that they had with Masterson. And so they included psychological and pharmacological specialists who would have testified concerning the results of alcohol and medicines on reminiscence.
The courtroom submitting says there was “sudden and unreasonable failure of trial counsel to current any of the mountain of exculpatory proof” that had been amassed by Masterson’s pretrial legal professional Shawn Holley, and the consequence was a violation of his constitutional rights.
Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Choose Charlaine F. Olmedo declined to delay Masterson’s first trial to accommodate Holley’s illustration of former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer in opposition to his personal allegations of sexual misconduct. Cohen then took over as lead legal professional.
Masterson’s first trial resulted in a mistrial with a jury unable to succeed in consensus on any of three rape counts in opposition to him. He was promptly retried, and a jury discovered him responsible of two counts whereas failing to succeed in a verdict on the third.
Cohen didn’t instantly reply to an e-mail searching for touch upon the petition, nor did an legal professional for the ladies.
“The unfairness of the second Masterson trial was the results of prosecutorial misconduct, judicial bias, and the failure of protection counsel to current exculpatory proof,” Eric Multhaup, the legal professional who filed the petition for Masterson, stated in an announcement. “The jury heard solely half the story – the prosecution’s facet. Danny deserves a brand new trial the place the jury can hear his facet as effectively.”
The petition says Olmedo erred in permitting the prosecution to negatively forged the Church of Scientology as a power of intimidation. It alleges that Cohen additionally didn’t current obtainable proof that will countered the portrayal.
Masterson’s new movement is separate from his fundamental attraction to the identical courtroom, a course of that’s pending.
Masterson, 49, is serving his sentence on the California Males’s Colony in San Luis Obispo. He is not going to be eligible for parole for greater than 20 years.
Masterson starred with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis and Topher Grace in “That ’70s Present” from 1998 till 2006. He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” however was written off the present when the Los Angeles Police Division investigation was revealed the next 12 months.
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