Actor Danny Masterson, who is serving a sentence of 30 years to life in prison, is seeking to overturn his conviction for the rape of two women, with his attorneys arguing he did not receive a fair trial.

A Los Angeles jury found Masterson guilty last year of two counts of rape by force or fear for assaulting two women at his Hollywood Hills home in separate incidents in 2003 — during the same time he was starring on the Fox TV’s “That ’70s Show.” The jury deadlocked on the case involving a third alleged victim. The May 2023 trial followed a mistrial in November 2022.

Masterson, 48, is incarcerated at California Men’s Colony, a minimum- and medium-security prison in San Luis Obispo County.

Cliff Gardner, the attorney handling Masterson’s appeal, filed an appellant’s opening brief Tuesday that alleges witnesses told different versions of their stories over time. The brief also argues that evidence that would have helped Masterson’s defense was not presented due to what Gardner describes as erroneous rulings by the court. Gardner argues in the court filings that those factors support reversing the convictions. 

Masterson’s defense argued at trial that he knew both women socially and his sexual relations with them were consensual.

“It is true, of course, that a defendant is not entitled to a perfect trial. He is, however, still entitled to a fair one,” the brief reads. “Danny Masterson received neither. Reversal is required.” 

During the trial, one of the women Masterson was later convicted of raping broke down on the witness stand as she testified that he choked her and smothered her with a pillow when she tried fighting back as he assaulted her, according to the Associated Press. 

“I could not breathe,” she said, crying. 

When the prosecutor asked what she was thinking at the time, she said she feared for her life, AP reported.

“That he was going to kill me,” she said. “That I was going to die.”  

She later testified Masterson took out a gun from inside his bedside table and told her to be quiet when they heard voices at the door. She told jurors she was in and out of consciousness through the night.

Masterson and the victims were members of the Church of Scientology, which became a central focus of the case as the women alleged they were stalked and harassed after reporting the allegations to police. 

They sued Masterson and the church years earlier in connection with those accusations.

During the trial, Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller told jurors the church had retaliated against the victims for reporting the the crimes — the rape of a 28-year-old woman in April 2003 and assault of a 23-year-old woman, also that year.

“What happened after they were drugged, they were raped by this man over here,” Mueller said, as he pointed across the courtroom toward Masterson during closing arguments. “You have an opportunity to show there is justice. It does exist.”

The church released a statement at the time refuting the allegations.

“The church has no policy prohibiting or discouraging members from reporting criminal conduct of anyone, Scientologists or not, to law enforcement,” the statement reads. “Quite the opposite, church policy explicitly demands Scientologists abide by all laws of the land. All allegations to the contrary are totally false.”

In the newly filed brief for Masterson’s appeal, Gardner alleges the victims changed their stories “dramatically” over the years and had a financial motive to do so. Gardner argues in court documents that though the statute of limitations to file a lawsuit seeking damages had expired before the trial, under state law it would be revived if Masterson was convicted of forcible rape involving multiple victims. 

Gardner says in the brief that a court ruling prevented evidence related to that argument from being admitted at trial.

He also states in the court filings that some witnesses died before the case went to trial, more than a decade after being reported to law enforcement, and alleges that police lost a tape-recorded witness interview that would have helped Masterson’s defense.

After the six-day trial resulting in Masterson’s convictions, one of the women he was convicted of raping released a statement saying she was relieved he had been found guilty.

“I am experiencing a complex array of emotions – relief, exhaustion, strength, sadness – knowing that my abuser, Danny Masterson, will face accountability for his criminal behavior,” said a statement from one of the women whom Masterson was convicted of raping at his home in 2003.

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET.  “Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

Hosted by Jane Pauley

COVER STORY: The story of Handel’s “Messiah”
Since its premiere in 1742, George Frideric Handel’s “Messiah,” a 3.5-hour work for chorus, soloists and orchestra that includes the “Hallelujah Chorus,” has become one of the most-heard pieces of classical music on Earth. Correspondent David Pogue looks back on the creation of this masterwork with author Charles King and conductor-musicologist Jane Glover, and examines how Biblical passages assembled by a wealthy English landowner suffering from doom and despair would, in the hands of the German-British opera composer, become a timeless message of hope, and a Christmas tradition.

For more info:

       
ALMANAC: December 22
“Sunday Morning” looks back at historical events on this date.

      
ARTS: In Asheville, N.C., gingerbread houses reflect community spirit
For more than three decades, Asheville, North Carolina, has hosted the National Gingerbread Contest, a celebration of Christmas, creativity and carbohydrates. The flooding brought by Hurricane Helene this past fall cancelled the contest, but what had been a destination event for bakers and spectators has become an ad hoc celebration of Asheville. Forty-one gingerbread creations have been placed around town to help bring holiday cheer (as well as attract donations and tourist dollars) to the struggling city. Correspondent Conor Knight reports.

For more info:

MOVIES: Werner Herzog keeps working, predicts: “You have to carry me out from a set feet first”
Visionary director Werner Herzog has made more than 20 feature films and more than 30 documentaries. But it wasn’t movies that prompted the German-born filmmaker to move to Los Angeles; it was love. He talks with Turner Classic Movies host Ben Mankiewicz about his recent memoir, “Every Man for Himself and God Against All”; about the epic making of his 1982 classic, “Fitzcarraldo”; and why he enjoys acting – when he gets to play the villain.

For more info:

      
HEADLINES: Why drone hysteria has taken off
By most accounts, alleged drone sightings have been multiplying exponentially, with more than 5,000 reported in just the past few weeks. But experts say the majority of reports about unusual lights in the sky are probably anything but drones. Correspondent Tom Hanson reports.

For more info:

       
PASSAGE: In memoriam
“Sunday Morning” remembers some of the notable figures who left us this week.

      
WORLD: West Bank settlements, and the expanding divide of Israelis and Palestinians
Inside the occupied West Bank, the Israeli settlement of Karnei Shomron is one of more than a hundred carved into Palestinian land. Today, upwards of 700,000 Israelis live in communities scattered inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which the United Nations calls illegal. About 15% of settlers are Americans. Correspondent Seth Doane talks with two settlers, originally from West Virginia and Detroit, and with Palestinians in the West Bank now living on the other side of an Israeli security barrier.

For more info:

COMMENTARY: Bob Dylan’s enduring love affair with the movies
The iconic Bob Dylan has long been a silver screen presence – as an actor, a subject of documentaries, and as portrayed by Hollywood heavyweights, from Christian Bale to Timothée Chalamet (star of the new biopic “A Complete Unknown”). But as historian Douglas Brinkley points out, Dylan’s love of movies has been a recurring theme in his art, and his persona, all his life.

To watch a trailer for “A Complete Unknown,” click on the video player below:

For more info:

      
SUNDAY PROFILE: Darren Criss
Kelefa Sanneh reports. 

You can stream the holiday album “A Very Darren Crissmas” by clicking on the embed below (Free Spotify registration required to hear the tracks in full):

For more info:

     
MUSIC: A Darren Criss performance
       

COMMENTARY: Reflections on the messages of Christmas and Hanukkah
Wednesday will mark both Christmas Day and the first night of Hanukkah. Mariann Budde, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, D.C., and author and rabbi Steve Leder, of Los Angeles, offer their thoughts on what the holiday season means to us all.

For more info:

     
MUSIC: Darren Criss performs with the Young People’s Chorus of New York City
     

NATURE: TBD
     

WEB EXCLUSIVES: 

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Hollywood Legends IV (YouTube Video)
Watch more classic “Sunday Morning” interviews with some of the film industry’s most luminous stars. From 2014, Leonardo DiCaprio talks about the making of “The Wolf of Wall Street”; from 2012, Jane Fonda discusses what she calls her “third and final act”; from 2015, Russell Crowe talks about his first film as a director, “The Water Diviner”; from 2010, Harrison Ford describes stardom and his responsibility to his audience; and from 2018, Denzel Washington discusses his career on screen and on stage, as he appears in a Broadway revival of the Eugene O’Neill classic, “The Iceman Cometh.”

The Emmy Award-winning “CBS News Sunday Morning” is broadcast on CBS Sundays beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Executive producer is Rand Morrison.

DVR Alert! Find out when “Sunday Morning” airs in your city 

“Sunday Morning” also streams on the CBS News app beginning at 11:00 a.m. ET. (Download it here.) 

Full episodes of “Sunday Morning” are now available to watch on demand on CBSNews.com, CBS.com and Paramount+, including via Apple TV, Android TV, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon FireTV/FireTV stick and Xbox. 

Follow us on Twitter; Facebook; Instagram; YouTube; TikTok; and at cbssundaymorning.com.  

You can also download the free “Sunday Morning” audio podcast at iTunes and at Play.it. Now you’ll never miss the trumpet!