Former It's That '70s Show actor Danny Masterson blames his lawyer for his 2023 convictions for rape and accused his defense team of “failing to exercise due diligence.”
Masterson, currently serving 30 years to life in prison for raping two women, filed a petition for habeas corpus on Monday — a lawsuit challenging the legality of his imprisonment — accusing his lawyer, Philip Cohen, of failing to call a single witness or oppose prosecutors' claims about Scientology. Diversity Reports.
Masterson, 49, “begged (Cohen) to provide at least minimal evidence for the defense, but the lawyer refused,” the case file states.
“Cohen had a long-standing aversion to presenting compelling defense evidence in the cases he tried,” the document states.
“He personally spoke with only two of more than 20 potential witnesses who were strongly recommended by co-counsel Karen Goldstein and investigator Linda Larsen. He wrote off the vast majority of them without any personal contact, despite their apparently exculpatory statements to police and investigators.”
In the petition, Masterson also claims that police and prosecutors were biased against Scientology, in part due to the involvement of a former Scientologist. Leah Reminiwho publicly supported his accusers.
“She was welcomed to the prosecution as an advisor, strategist, authority on Church of Scientology policies and practices, and an advocate for complaining witnesses,” the petition states. “She was welcomed even though the LAPD knew she was continuing a vendetta against the complainant.”
The actor was found guilty on two of three counts of forcible rape during his May 2023 retrial. He pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. A retrial has been scheduled following the original trial in 2022 on the same three counts. ended in litigation when the jury deadlocked, unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
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During the second trial, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller and his team tried to portray Masterson as a serial rapist who under the protection of high-ranking officials in the Church of Scientology. (Masterson and his family are members of the church.) They alleged that Masterson, on separate occasions, drugged the drinks of his longtime girlfriend and two other women he knew through the church before raping them.
The victims claimed they were threatened by Scientology officials for years after they reported Masterson's abuse to police. The Church of Scientology has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and did not participate in Masterson's trial.
At the retrial, prosecutors called Claire Headley to testify. She is a former Scientologist who testified that the church requires special permission to go to authorities.
According to the new document, the church's lawyers urged Cohen to call Hugh Witt, a longtime Scientologist, to discuss the lawsuit, but Cohen and his fellow lawyer did not call him.
“Why have we heard so much about Scientology?” Cohen asked in his closing remarks instead of refuting Headley's assertion. “Could there be other problems with the government’s case?”
The petition alleges that Cohen failed to interview numerous defense witnesses who could have helped Masterson's case by calling into question the credibility of his accusers.
“This failure to exercise due diligence violated the well-established principle of Sixth Amendment case law that counsel must interview potential defense witnesses as a necessary basis for making an informed decision about trial strategy,” the petition states.
“Overall, the jury saw only the tip of the iceberg of available defense evidence in the form of conflicting testimony from complaining witnesses, while a wealth of direct exculpatory evidence was left unused for no real tactical reason.”
Masterson's appellate lawyer, Eric Multhaup, argued that the jury “only heard half the story – the prosecution's side.”
“The injustice of Masterson's second trial was the result of prosecutorial misconduct, judicial bias and the failure of defense counsel to present exculpatory evidence,” Multhaup said in a statement. in Los Angeles Times on Monday. “The habeas corpus petition is accompanied by 65 exhibits to support evidence of innocence that could have been presented but was not presented.
“Danny deserves a new trial where a jury can hear his side.”
Masterson's lawyers filed a lawsuit separate appeal last Decemberarguing that the testimony of key witnesses changed over time and “erroneous judicial decisions” skewed the jury's view of the evidence against him.
In the statement In a statement posted on the Law Offices of Cliff Gardner's website, the lawyers said there were “two fundamental flaws” in Masterson's verdict: one was the aforementioned misrepresentation, and the second was the “staggering amount” of supposed exculpatory evidence “never presented to the jury.”
His legal team further stated that this is just “one part” of their planned challenge to his conviction and they are working towards a “full exoneration” of Masterson.
— With files from The Associated Press
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