Lawyer: Masterson in shock
The language is spare in the criminal complaint made public Wednesday by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office against Danny Masterson, the actor best known for his role in the sitcoms “That ’ 70s Show” and “The Ranch.”
He is charged with raping three women, all in their 20s, in his home in the early 2000s.
But details of the accusations against Masterson, 44, are contained in a lawsuit filed last year by four women who say Masterson sexually assaulted them and that the Church of Scientology, to which Masterson belonged, embarked on a pressure campaign to silence them.
Lawyers for the four women say that three of the accounts led to the criminal charges filed this week; they declined to identify which of the women’s allegations are being prosecuted.
Masterson’s lawyer, Thomas Mesereau, said in a statement that the actor and his wife are in “complete shock” that the “nearly 20-year-old allegations,” which he has long denied, had resulted in charges.
A lawyer for the church, William H. Forman, similarly criticized the accusations against the church in the civil case, saying in a statement that it “remains steadfast that the allegations against it are completely and utterly false.”
Though the criminal complaint makes no mention of the church, Masterson’s relationship with Scientology and the women’s accounts of their experi
ences with the church are likely to play a role in the case.