Former television actor Danny Masterson has been sentenced to 30 years to life in prison, as reported by multiple sources.
This comes three months after Masterson was convicted of rape, stemming from allegations that he sexually assaulted women he had encountered through the Church of Scientology nearly two decades ago.
In a Los Angeles retrial involving three victims, Masterson, 47, was found guilty of two counts of forcible rape.
A third count resulted in a mistrial in November after the jury foreman indicated that a unanimous verdict couldn't be reached. Prosecutors subsequently chose not to pursue a retrial for the third rape charge.
Masterson's arrest in 2020 followed a lengthy investigation into allegations of sexual assault by the three women, who claimed that Masterson had raped them at his Hollywood Hills residence between 2001 and 2003 .
Prosecutors argued that Masterson leveraged his status as a member of the Church of Scientology to evade accountability for these allegations.
Meanwhile, the accusers asserted that the church had obstructed them from reporting the incidents to law enforcement.
The Church of Scientology has refuted these claims, contending that the prosecution had unfairly targeted "the defendant’s religion and fabrications about the Church to introduce prejudice and inflame bigotry."
In an unexpected turn, attorneys Thomas Mesereau and Sharon Applebaum, who had previously represented Masterson but were removed from the case before the trial, faced financial sanctions last year.
This was after a ruling by Judge Olmedo, who determined that they had shared information about the victims with the Church of Scientology
The church, while denying the allegations, emphasized that it was not a party in the case.
The shared information included text messages, emails exchanged between the victims and law enforcement, as well as police reports detailing the incidents at the victims' residences, including personal identification and financial data.