‘That ’70s Show’ actor Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape
‘That ’70s Show’ actor Danny Masterson sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for rape
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00:00 A Los Angeles judge has handed down a 30-year-to-life prison sentence to That '70s Show actor Danny
00:06 Masterson.
00:07 The actor has been in custody since May, after he was found guilty of two counts of rape.
00:13 The two women Masterson is convicted of raping spoke in court Thursday, sharing details of
00:18 the trauma they experienced, with one of them saying, "The world is better off with you
00:23 in prison."
00:24 Both attacks happened in 2003 at his Hollywood area home.
00:28 The actor waived his right to speak in court Thursday, but has maintained his innocence.
00:33 The sentence is the maximum allowed by law, with Masterson being eligible for parole after
00:37 serving 25 and a half years.
00:41 It was quite a morning, and there's a lot I could say with regard to this case.
00:49 It's a case that we had been investigating for a lot of years.
00:53 It began toward the latter part of 2016, and then into early 2017 when we were coordinating
01:02 with the Los Angeles Police Department, our office, in investigating these allegations
01:08 of rape by the suspect at that time, Mr. Masterson.
01:18 In June of 2020, we finally filed charges on this case.
01:25 On May 31st, we had a jury come back, return a verdict of guilty on two of the counts,
01:31 on counts one and two, and deadlocked on the third count with an eight to four vote for
01:39 guilty.
01:41 I've gotten to know the victims in this case quite well over the years, and I can tell
01:50 you they're strong.
01:56 We're committed to making sure that justice gets served, and today they got it.
02:01 The judge imposed a sentence, an aggregate sentence of 30 years to life, which we believe
02:10 is the appropriate sentence in this case.
02:13 Based on certain case law that the judge cited, as well as the manner in which these offenses
02:22 were committed, she found justification for the fact that these sentences needed to be
02:27 run consecutively for a total of 30 life, and that was the right decision.
02:34 I have to say that I'm extremely proud of the named victims in this case for coming
02:41 forward, for enduring the long time that it took to get to justice today, but I was so
02:53 happy to see them in court when they were able to get up there, give their impact statements,
02:59 and have their voices be heard, and to be able to express themselves on the significance
03:04 of the impact that the crimes had upon them.
03:09 It was wonderful to see, and this is a day for them, this is a moment for them, and I'm
03:17 just very pleased.
03:18 I also want to thank the jury in this case, in this second trial, and they got it.
03:25 They were able to see through the evidence and come to the right decision in finding
03:31 this defendant, Mr. Madison, accountable.
03:34 It's a lot of the, again, a lot of these preconceived notions where people say, "Well, it's like
03:40 20 years old.
03:41 Does it really still matter anymore?
03:44 It's 20 years old.
03:45 Why didn't she say something sooner?"
03:48 But that's where it's important for us to make sure that we're able to convey to a jury
03:58 that those things happen.
04:00 That's not unusual, especially when you're dealing with rapes of a known offender, or
04:06 someone that you maybe have been in a relationship for some time.
04:10 So you just have to overcome those obstacles and get the jury to understand that just because
04:16 it's a delayed reporting, even if it's been 20 years, it still matters, a crime still
04:22 happened, and somebody needs to be held accountable, despite the length of the time.
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