Sophia Michaels
An actress who filmed a movie with Danny Masterson two years before his breakout role on That ‘70s Show testified in public for the first time Wednesday, telling jurors the accused serial rapist rattled her with an unrelenting “cold stare” at a wrap party in 1996 and then raped her while she was passed out.
The woman — identified in court by her first name and initials to protect her privacy — broke her silence as a “prior bad acts” witness called by prosecutors to show an alleged pattern of behavior on the part of Masterson.
Also known as Jane Doe 4, the woman said she was at a Los Angeles restaurant called La Poubelle to celebrate completion of the movie’s filming when she noticed that Masterson seemed to be fixated on watching her every move.
“It was unsettling. It was very focused and hard to read, you know. Why?” she told jurors at Masterson’s trial, now in its fourth week in downtown Los Angeles. “It was just kind of a rattling, unnerving, having someone kind of cold stare at you in a very hard way.”
The woman said while she was confused by Masterson’s behavior that night, she believed they had become friends, so she didn’t think twice about going with the group back to Masterson’s Laurel Canyon home to continue the party. She said after consuming about three drinks and some marijuana, she agreed with the group that they should spend the night. She then fell asleep, fully clothed and admittedly drunk, on the floor of a bedroom next to another cast member in the film, she said.
“I woke up to Danny trying to pull me up and out of the room,” the woman said. She said Masterson accused the other male cast member in the room of trying to take “advantage” of her. She recalled trying to rebuff Masterson because that wasn’t the case.
“I was on the floor and woke up to him over me trying to lift me up,” she testified. “He was kind of like trying to scoop me up off the ground. I didn’t get up. I kicked him away with my foot and was like pushing him off of me and saying that nothing was happening, that (the other cast member) wasn’t doing anything to me, and I just wanted to sleep and I wanted to stay there.”
The woman said she blacked out at that point but then regained some awareness as Masterson was “hoisting” her down a hallway to another bedroom.
“It seemed like he had like arms around me, sort of like dragging me, by the waist,” she said. “I was only conscious for a flash.”
Masterson, a prominent Scientologist who has pleaded not guilty to three charges of forcible rape related to three other Jane Does, listened quietly to the woman’s testimony with no expression. He scribbled some notes as she described the alleged encounter.
The woman said she didn’t recall Masterson removing any of her clothes, but she later woke up on a bed in a different room with Masterson hovering over her.
“Danny was having sex with me,” she said. “He was on top of me.”
At that point, Jane Doe 4 lost her composure and needed a minute to continue. “He was penetrating me, vaginally, and I just remember like, becoming, waking up from being unconscious and him being above me.”
Masterson’s wife Bijou Phillips watched from the gallery, also with no expression. Seated beside her were her sisters Chyna and Mackenzie Phillips.
Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller asked if the woman recalled feeling Masterson’s body weight on top of her.
“Yes, he was rough,” she said. “I just remember sort of trying to take in what was happening. I mean, I was pretty disoriented. And honestly, I don’t think I was conscious for very long.”
Jane Doe 4 said Masterson was “pounding” her during the alleged assault. She said it was confusing when she later woke up and Masterson was “smiling” at her. She recalled quickly gathering her clothes and leaving.
“I completely shut down and just got dressed and left the room,” she told the jury, breaking down in tears. “I just didn’t know what to make of the situation. I didn’t like him, and I didn’t think that he even liked me, and I just didn’t know how to process it.”
As her hands trembled, the woman said she had a hard time processing what happened. “I didn’t know how to categorize it. I definitely felt a deep shame — and disrespected — because I thought I was hanging out with my castmates and maybe friends, and I had a very different assessment of the situation.”
The woman’s account was initially excluded from the trial. But Judge Charlaine Olmedo reversed course Monday and said she would allow her testimony as a prior bad acts witness. The judge said she decided to change her ruling, which was considered a major blow to Masterson’s defense, because she was “caught off guard” by Masterson’s defense lawyer suggesting to jurors that some of the alleged sex described in the testimony of Jane Doe 3 never took place. The judge said she thought Masterson’s defense was that all the alleged sex was consensual, not that some of it was invented.
Jane Doe 3, who has publicly identified herself as Chrissie Carnell Bixler, previously testified at the trial that Masterson assaulted her twice at the end of 2001, toward the end of a troubled domestic relationship. She said the first assault involved Masterson initiating penetrative sex with her while she was sleeping.
“I woke up and he was having sex with me. I did not want to. I told him so, I told him, ‘No,’ many times,” she testified. “He wouldn’t stop. I was trying to push him off me. He pushed my arms back and put his forearm on my arm. I felt trapped.”
Carnell Bixler also testified that Masterson struck her in the face, spit on her, and called her “white trash” when she pulled his hair to defend herself. She testified the second attack involved Masterson penetrating her anally while she was passed out.
Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 also have taken the witness stand in the high-profile trial. Jane Doe 1 told jurors last month that Masterson raped her and put a gun to her head after feeding her a fruity vodka cocktail at his home in 2003. She claimed the actor threatened her and demanded that she not tell her friends, including Lisa Marie Presley, about the alleged assault. “You’re not going to tell fucking Lisa,” Jane Doe 1 said Masterson told her.
Jane Doe 2, meanwhile, told jurors that Masterson raped her at his home in late 2003 after feeding her a glass of wine that caused her to feel limp. She claims the actor ignored her pleas to stop and overpowered her.
For his part, Masterson has called the women’s allegations “outrageous” and “ridiculous.”
His lawyer asked for a mistrial shortly before the lunch break Wednesday, arguing that Mueller led Jane Doe 4 into territory that the judge previously ruled was off-limits. One such area was the suggestion that Masterson may have drugged Jane Doe 4.
Judge Olmedo declined to grant a mistrial and said she was open to a suggestion from the defense about an instruction she could give to the jury. She said while it was true jurors heard from Jane Doe 4 that she didn’t think the amount of alcohol and marijuana she consumed that night should have caused her to black out, there was no testimony that Masterson ever handed her any of her beverages, as was the case with the other three Jane Does.
In another twist revealed Wednesday morning, Mueller said prosecutors had decided not to call Presley to the stand. He said the decision was based on Olmedo’s ruling yesterday that the examination would be strictly limited in terms of references to Scientology. Prosecutors had hoped to question Presley, a former Scientologist, about an alleged effort by the church to get Presley to dissuade Jane Doe 1 from speaking with law enforcement.
“Based on the court’s ruling, we’ve opted not to have her testify,” Mueller just told the judge.
