NEWSJudge Denies Danny Masterson's Attempts To Get Sexual Assault Case Thrown Out
Danny Masterson is headed to court again whether he likes it or not.
Judge Charlaine Olmedo reportedly denied the That '70s Show actor's request to throw out one of the rape accusations hedged against him after his attorney argued there was slight differences in testimonies given by the alleged victim and her father.
Masterson is scheduled to head to trial against one of his alleged victims — only known as Jane Doe 1 — in October, according to The Underground Bunker.
As OK! reported, Masterson has been plagued by a wave of legal and financial troubles after he pleaded "not guilty" to rape following accusations of brutally sexually assaulting three different women at separate times in the 2000s.
One of the women involved in the case claimed the alleged assault happened in 2003 after the actor texted her with a series of forceful orders to take her clothing off and get into the hot tub with him. She testified that while she was flattered, before she arrived she set a clear boundary with him, including telling him she would not be putting a swimsuit on or getting into his pool.
"I didn’t understand why he was commanding," she told Masterson's lawyer, Thomas Mesereau. "I thought perhaps he was saying it in a way to be aggressive as a form of flirting. I didn’t understand why he was so aggressive."
The actor's legal team previously attempted to get the case tossed out back in February, insisting that Masterson's civil rights had been abused at a hearing last year after the judge considered Introduction to Scientology Ethics as a piece of evidence in the case.
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They explained they believed Judge Olmedo ignored alleged "inconsistencies" in the plaintiffs' testimonies "by interpreting church doctrine," because she had taken Masterson's status as a scientologist into consideration at the time of her decision. The judge didn't agree and ruled the accusations against him were "credible" enough to warrant a court trial.
"The evidence was admitted by the defense, and for the court," Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller shot back, noting, "it is absolutely permissible to review that evidence for the purposes of the state of mind of the witnesses and their credibility."
