A girl broke down on the witness stand Wednesday whereas giving graphic testimony a few 2003 night time when she stated she emerged from unconsciousness to seek out actor Danny Masterson raping her.
She is the primary of three girls who say Masterson raped them to testify throughout his Los Angeles trial. She stated at one level she grabbed Masterson’s hair to attempt to pull him away, however he shoved a pillow into her face.
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“I was smothered,” she stated, crying. “I could not breathe.”
She stated she later grabbed his throat to attempt to push him away, however he held her down and commenced choking her.
Asked by the prosecutor what she was pondering on the time, she replied: “That he was going to kill me. That I was going to die.”
By this level she was weeping. After she stated, “I can’t do this,” the decide referred to as for a quick break and a courtroom victims’ companies advocate comforted her on the witness stand.
When she took the stand once more, she testified that Masterson pulled a gun from a drawer in his bedside desk and ordered her to be quiet when there was a commotion — and voices — on the door.
She stated that, all through the night time, she handed out and in of consciousness regardless of consuming solely about half of a fruity vodka drink Masterson had handed her.
Masterson, 46, who on the time was a star of the Fox TV sitcom That ’70s present, has pleaded not responsible to 3 counts of rape.
In temporary cross-examination earlier than the trial ended for the day, questions from Masterson’s lawyer Phillip Cohen instructed that he would problem her over variations within the story she advised police in 2004, which didn’t result in prices for Masterson, and her testimony Wednesday.
She conceded that she omitted parts of the story on the time, “to protect people.”
At a preliminary listening to final 12 months, a earlier defence lawyer for Masterson emphasised that there was no point out of a gun within the LAPD report from 2004 and contended the three girls had every reframed consensual intercourse as rape.
The Associated Press doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they arrive ahead publicly.
Masterson, sitting on the protection desk in a swimsuit, seemed towards the girl as she testified, however had no seen response. His spouse, actor and mannequin Bijou Phillips, sat behind him on the entrance of the gallery, together with a number of of his relations and buddies.
The lady, then 27, was one of the best pal of Masterson’s assistant and a part of the identical social circle of Church of Scientology members.
She testified that she had solely meant to go to Masterson’s home to select up a set of keys, and that her relationship had been uneasy with Masterson because the two had intercourse a number of months earlier, an incident she advised police was consensual in 2004 however later determined she hadn’t consented to. She went again to police in 2016.
In his cross-examination, Cohen requested whether or not it was her place in 2004 that Masterson had raped her the primary time that they had intercourse, and she or he answered “no.” Asked whether or not that was her place now, she additionally answered “no.” Court adjourned earlier than he might press her additional.
All three of Masterson’s accusers have been members of the Church of Scientology on the time they are saying they have been raped however have since left. Masterson stays a member. Judge Charlaine Olmedo stated earlier than the trial that she wouldn’t permit Scientology to develop into a de facto defendant however would permit restricted dialogue of it.
Before the girl took the stand Wednesday after starting her testimony Tuesday, the decide warned her to not stray too far into discussions of the faith, a difficulty she had already admonished Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller about.
Scientology nonetheless got here up. The lady testified that a few of her mutual buddies filed so-called “knowledge reports” signaling their unhappiness along with her after she advised them in regards to the preliminary incident with Masterson, and she or he was summoned by an ethics officer who compelled her to make peace with him and take accountability.
“You can never be a victim,” the girl stated. “No matter what happens, you’re always responsible.”
Asked if she nonetheless feared retaliation from anybody for coming ahead about Masterson, she replied “about half this courtroom.”
She testified that she signed a non-disclosure settlement with Masterson in 2004, and accepted $400,000 over the course of a 12 months, as a result of the church was going to tar her as a “suppressive person” in any other case. She stated she had violated the settlement “about 50 times” since signing it.
She testified that she had solely anticipated to be at Masterson’s home, a social hub for his or her pal circle, for a couple of minutes.
Masterson’s is one in every of a number of trials with #MeToo themes occurring concurrently on from coast to coast. They embody Harvey Weinstein’s second rape and sexual assault trial simply down the corridor, and civil trials in New York for actor Kevin Spacey and for screenwriter and director Paul Haggis, who’re each being sued for sexual assault.
Scientology additionally has a significant function within the trial of Haggis, a church dissident who’s being allowed to argue that the establishment is behind the allegations in opposition to him.
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