Danny Masterson Rape Trial Sees Jane Doe #1 And Defense Spar Over NDA Payout, More – Update
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2ND UPDATE: “I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t want to believe it,” a crying Jane Doe #1 told a downtown Los Angeles courtroom in the Danny Masterson rape trial Thursday afternoon, about a phone call she had with Masterson soon after the defendant allegedly sexually assaulted her in April 2003. The That ’70s Show actor had told the witness that the two of them “had sex” after she beseeched him “what happened?”
Throughout the afternoon, Jane Doe #1/Jen B was often in tears under cross-examination — even more so than in her testimony earlier this week. The court had to break at one point for a short period around 2:20 p.m. PT and the jury was sent out of the room because of the severity of her distress.
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However, the witness remained succinct and steely in refuting defense lawyer Phillip Cohen’s attempts to dive into the compensation she got from Masterson in a 2004 settlement after signing an NDA.
“No,” said Jen B to Cohen’s question of “did you receive a large sum of money from Mr. Masterson in 2004?” The answer was pretty much the same to his queries about if she hired a lawyer or if a civil case was floated against Masterson at that time. Showing little emotion, Jen B eventually asserted that Cohen was asking the wrong question, stating that she didn’t start seeing any of the $400,000 settlement until 2005.
Corrected by the witness, the defense lawyer lobbed salvos about how fast Jen B spent that money, and was shut down by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Charlene Olmedo following an objection by L.A. Assistant District Attorney Reinhold Mueller. The witness also partially rebutted Cohen’s insistence that she had conversations with her cousin and others about the rape after being asked by the LAPD not to do so.
Once again rejecting Cohen’s premise that her memory in 2004 of what happened with Masterson in 2003 was better in the early part of the century than more recently, the clash between Cohen and the witness was a familiar pattern for today.
On the stand in the last few minutes of today’s testimony, Jen B seemed to blunt the lawyer’s posture when she told the court that she had no idea who the LAPD were talking to about the claims in their probe.
After the return from the lunch break earlier in the afternoon, Cohen trained his continuing cross on possible inconsistencies in Jen B’s discussions with the police over the years and her time on the stand over the past few days. Again, as much of the same material addressed by the prosecution came up, and the judge chided Cohen to be more circumspect with his questioning.
Moving into specifics of the alleged April 2003 rape by Masterson, who is charged with three counts of forcible rape in this trial, Cohen ventured that Jen B thought the actor may shoot her with a gun he pulled out of his bedside table that night after the sexual encounter.
“Inadvertently,” she replied. “Still really scary?” the lawyer asked. “Yep,” the witness said.
Cutioned again by the judge in his questions about Jen B’s talks with certain LAPD officers on the rapes by Masterson, Cohen pivoted to have the witness determine if she was more concerned about injuries to her throat from alleged chocking by the actor during the “interaction” or harm to her hand from the bedside drawer.
Looking to cut into Jane Doe #1’s previous testimony, Cohen strode back and forth across the courtroom behind the defense and prosecution tables this afternoon while questioning the witness. Though he would infrequently stop at the podium, unlike the questioning of the witness by Mueller earlier this week, the defense attorney did not often utilize the video monitor in his cross-examination, centering more on relentless quizzing Jen B. Cohen did place photos of the witness in a bikini in Florida soon after the alleged 2003 assault on the monitor to erode claims that Jen B was covered in bruises from the incident with Masterson. The lawyer asked “where are the shocking pictures?” that the witness said her parents had seen.
The use of the term “shocking,” which Jen B had used in her earlier testimony, became a point of contention among the prosecution, the defense and the judge. After the jury had left the room for the last break of the day, Cohen said he didn’t believe such “shocking” photos existed. Later, when the jury had returned, Cohen asked the witness if she had provided LAPD Detective Javier Vargas with photos from 2003 in 2017. “No,” said Jen. B.
Vargas is on the witness list to testify later in the trial.
Earlier in the afternoon, latching on to “flashes” that Jen B had on a plane to Florida of the alleged 2003 sexual assault soon after it occurred, Cohen circled back over and over to what she said to whom and when.
On the topic of bruising or other injuries she may have endured from the alleged rape, Jen B was tripped up briefly over whether she saw a doctor in Florida while vacationing with her family, or in her home state of California. On a follow-up by Cohen, Jen B told the court, “Sorry, I lost track.”
The cross-examination will continue Friday.
UPDATED, 12:34 PM with more details: “It was pressure and squeeze,” Jane Doe #1 said Thursday under cross-examination in the second full day of testimony in the Danny Masterson rape trial, regarding what occurred in an alleged sexual assault by the actor in April 2003.
Displaying how she said the former That ’70s Show star had his hands and body on her in his Hollywood Hills home, the witness also told defense attorney Phillip Cohen, the jury and others assembled that she lost consciousness a total of seven times during the incident.
The increasingly graphic direction of the already vivid trial also took a turn towards linguistics as well. “I don’t recall if I used ‘strangled,’ ” Jane Doe #1/Jen B said of the supposed second rape by Masterson and the way she referred to it in a later interview with the LAPD.
Additionally, once again today, things became tense procedurally in the ninth-floor courtroom at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles as some of the quiet things were said out loud during the later morning session of the high-profile case.
At around 11:20 a.m. PT, L.A. Superior Court Judge Charlene Olmedo asked the jury to exit the courtroom for the second time of the day. “This line of questioning with her is getting convoluted,” Olmedo told Cohen, noting that if Jane Doe #1 doesn’t remember the LAPD detective, a Detective Meyers, or their 2004 interview she can’t answer his queries. Perhaps more seriously and in violation of rules surrounding a person’s past sexual history, Olmedo admonished Cohen for asking Jen B earlier in the day about whether or not she urinated in the street in 2003 due to alcohol intake.
“I’ve got to believe I’m allowed to follow up with conduct,” Cohen countered, citing the spotlight the prosecution put on what Jen B may or may have not consumed on the nights in question in September 2002 and late April 2003, when Masterson allegedly raped her.
“The people aren’t alleging Mr. Masterson drugged her, because there is no evidence of that,” the judge said, cutting to the real issue at hand.
With Masterson standing up next to the defense table, Cohen strongly disagreed with the judge’s perspective. “The clear inference of questioning and answer yesterday … is that there was something fishy about this drink,” he said, detailing the time the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office spent on the “tumblers” that Masterson gave Jen B at his house in both 2002 and 2003. The judge told Cohen he could submit paperwork on the issue, but for now the lawyer had to be more circumspect in cross-examination in regards to what Jen B related to the LAPD in 2004.
Centering on another more recent LAPD interview with another detective, Esther Reyes, Cohen tried to undermine statements that Jen B made about attempting to call her father from Masterson’s house in mid-2003. Moving the witness to tears, Cohen grilled her over if there ever was such a call or voicemail. As the court went near-silent, Jen B responded that she wanted to call her father for help under the premise she was going to sing him “Happy Birthday,” but her phone was taken from her.
Back from the morning break and an earthquake drill earlier in the day, the courtroom found Cohen questioning Jen B whether she recalled saying that Masterson apologized when she asked him to stop having contact with her anus during the September 2002 incident. Specifically, Cohen asked her to look at a 2004 interview with Detective Meyers and details of that night. “Does it refresh your recollection that Masterson apologized?” he asked.
After consideration of documents given to her in court, Jen B claimed that Masterson apologized for the anal contact later, though not during the incident itself. “You said I could clarify the questions and you weren’t trying to trick me,” the witness said to Cohen as he continued to follow the line of questioning. “I don’t remember an interview with this person, I don’t know what they look like,” Jen B exclaimed of the sit-down with Meyers, a female member of the LAPD.
In search of inconsistencies in the witness’ story about the 2002 incident, Cohen asked Jen B if going back to Masterson’s house after having a drink was “poor decision making.” The witness disagreed, but did admit she was a bit more hesitant being around the actor after the incident.
Returning to his focus on Jen B and her tolerance for alcohol, Cohen slipped in before the jury a claim that she once urinated in the street in the early 2000s under the influence. The prosecution objected to the relevance of the question, which Olmedo sustained, but the remark was now out there.
Shifting to the April 2003 sexual encounter with Masterson, which found Jen B nauseous and incapacitated after consuming a “fruity” alcohol beverage earlier that evening, Cohen’s questions about the sequence of events became a volley of “yes” and “no” answers from the witness.
“I don’t recall of thinking about September ’02, it was upsetting,” Jen B replied in more detail when Cohen asked her about her feelings as Masterson supposedly was “pulling you” down a hallway and “carries you” up some stairs. “This is very scary, right?” the lawyer said, to an almost inaudible response from the witness.
In prior testimony and previous depositions and documents, Jen B detailed how Masterson gave her a drink on his porch in 2003, threw her in his jacuzzi, and later took her upstairs to a bathroom to vomit before assaulting her in his bedroom. Pacing back and forth as his client Masterson looked on, Cohen referred to a 2004 LAPD interview Jen B gave to an Officer Alexander Shlegal which appeared to contradict her testimony.
PREVIOUSLY, 10:39 AM: The cross-examination of Jane Doe #1 in the Danny Masterson rape trial continued Thursday and at times turned into a battle of wills between the witness and the defense, with the judge having to step in on a number of occasions.
With a degree of parrying between Jane Doe #1/Jen B and lead defense lawyer Phillip Cohen from the start of this morning’s proceedings in Los Angeles Superior Court, the attorney wasted little time seeking to shred the witness’ reconsideration of whether or not an alleged September 2002 sexual encounter with the That ’70s Show actor was consensual. It was a theme Cohen came back to again and again this morning.
Repeating his own questions when Jen B failed to give him the response he sought, a pacing Cohen also attempted to paint Jen B from the jump as looking to squeeze Masterson for cash in the pending civil lawsuit against him and the Church of Scientology.
Going through a list of damages in the 2019-filed case against the church over alleged surveillance and intimidation, Cohen elicited a “yes” over and over from the witness. However, with gentle guidance from Judge Charlene Olmedo on his approach, Cohen didn’t get every “yes” he wanted.
“I don’t know as I sit here,” Jen B responded when Cohen asked if she and her fellow civil plaintiffs, all ex-Scientologists, were seeking the possible big bucks of treble damages under California law.
First arrested in 2020 and free on just over a $3 million bail price tag, Masterson is looking at a possible maximum sentence of 45 years to life in California state prison if found guilty. The actor, who subsequently was fired from Netflix’s comedy The Ranch at the end of 2017 as claims became known, always has denied he had nonconsensual sex.
Shifting to Jen B’s meeting with the Los Angeles Police Department in June 2004, subsequent sit-downs with police detectives in 2016 and 2017 over the alleged rape or rapes by Masterson, and a 2017 meeting with Los Angeles County Assistant District Attorney Reinhold Mueller, Cohen picked up on what he previously termed as inconsistencies in Jen. B’s story.
In classic defense lawyer style, to quote Cohen from earlier Wednesday over the introduction of material from the non-disclosure agreement the witness signed in 2004 (in which she received $400,000 in installments(: “The fact that JB testified to something, doesn’t make it true.”
In that context, Jen B pushed back at one point to Cohen’s assertion that she did not speak to any LAPD officers between 2004 and 2016. Challenging the lawyer’s word of his question, the witness said that in fact she had spoken to front desk police officers on several occasions over those years. Alternately, then-second-generation Scientologist Jen B agreed she “may have” told the LAPD in 2004 that she didn’t remember all of the incident and that she didn’t want her church-member parents to find out what had happened with Masterson.
Cohen seemed to strike out with his efforts to display that Jen B had a problem with alcohol in the early 2000s. After a string of objections by the prosecution on the defense lawyer’s sharp line of questioning were sustained by the Los Angeles Superior Court judge, the jury was asked to leave the courtroom. Chastising Mueller for his constant objections, Olmedo sternly told Cohen that any witness’ past history of alcohol consumption and any other substance is “off-limits …unless it is directly relevant.”
“We’re not going to go there,” Olmedo emphatically told Cohen, pointing out that Jen B had actually testified earlier in the case that she felt she was intoxicated in 2002 in relation to the amount of alcohol she had consumed with Masterson and others. Standing his own ground, Cohen argued that Jen B had said otherwise on other occasions. Told by the judge to refocus his inquiries, the lawyer added that he believed it was relevant that Jen B had a low tolerance for booze because she had been apparently abstaining beforehand.
With the jury back in the room, Jen B agreed that she did have a low tolerance for alcohol in the fall of 2002.
The cross-examination soon moved to a sexual encounter between Jen B and Masterson in the latter’s Hollywood Hills home in September 2002. “I never said no,” the witness said of the vaginal sex the two had. Starting to cry, Jen B did say that she told Masterson not to touch her anus during the encounter.
Going into its scheduled morning break, the trial could hear from Hollywood heavyweight lawyer Marty Singer later in the day, depending on how much longer Jen B is on the stand. The pugilistic attorney represented Masterson, who went under the name of David Dunkin in the 2004 NDA that Jen B signed, as was detailed in Wednesday’s testimony.
On this day of the 2022 Great California ShakeOut earthquake preparedness in LA, there was also a small shakeup in the jury, with one of the panelists requesting to drop out due to “anxiety.” Coming off the intense testimony of Jane Doe #1/Jen B the day before, Olmedo conferred with attorneys on both sides and they agreed to replace the departing juror with one of the alternates randomly selected.
In a parallel move to the events unfolding in the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, the Church of Scientology on Wednesday filed paperwork to be allowed to put motions in the docket in the currently paused civil case that the three alleged victims in Masterson rape trial and others filed against the church. Initially filed in 2019, the suit claims that the plaintiffs have been harassed, stalked and even seen pets killed by the church and church affiliates for going to the LAPD with their allegations against Masterson.
Desiring to have the whole thing dealt with behind closed doors in “religious arbitration” as per contracts inked when the now former members joined the church, Scientology recently saw the Supreme Court reject its petition to take up that matter. That petition was in response to a California appellate court earlier this year deeming that the ex-church members had a First Amendment right to not be held to the stipulations of a religious organizations once they have left the group.
All parties have agreed over the past few months to have the civil matter stayed while Masterson’s criminal trial proceeds and a verdict is delivered.
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