That ’70s Show star Danny Masterson was convicted guilty of rape.

In a Los Angeles retrial where the Church of Scientology was prominent, Danny Masterson, the actor best remembered for his part in That ’70s Show, was found guilty of two counts of rape on Wednesday.

70s Show star Danny Masterson

After debating for seven days over two weeks, the jury of five men and seven women came to their decision. On the third count, which claimed Danny Masterson had sexually assaulted a previous girlfriend, they were unable to reach a decision. The verdict had received an 8-4 vote in favour.

Handcuffed, Masterson was escorted from the courtroom. The actor, 47, may spend up to 30 years behind bars.

As he was being led away, his wife, the actor and model Bijou Phillips, sobbed. Other relatives and friends sat expressionless.

After a mistrial in December due to a hung jury, prosecutors retried Masterson and claimed that between 2001 and 2003, he brutally raped three women in his Hollywood Hills home, including a longtime lover. They informed the jury that he had spiked the women’s drinks in order to rape them. All three women were members of the church at the time, and they claimed he utilised his status there to evade punishment for many years.

No witnesses were cited by Danny Masterson attorneys, and he declined to testify. The defence asserted that the acts were consensual and worked to undermine the women’s accounts by calling attention to changes and contradictions that they claimed indicated coordination between the parties.

Defence lawyer Philip Cohen advised the jury, “you should consider not believing anything that witness says,” if they came to the conclusion that a witness in this case had lied on purpose.

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In the first trial, the Church of Scientology had a major impact; but, in the second trial, it may have been even more influential. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo permitted expert testimony on church policy from a former member of the leadership of Scientology who has since emerged as a significant rival.

The accusers said on the witness stand that they were intimidated by certain Scientologists in the courtroom due to the high levels of tension between current and former Scientologists.

Leah Remini, an actor and former member of the church who has emerged as its most prominent critic, occasionally attended the trial and held one of the accusers close to her during closing statements.

L Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology in 1953, and it has a sizable number of Hollywood-based adherents. The judge set restrictions on how much the prosecution may discuss the church and mostly allowed it to be used as an excuse for why the women delayed so long to contact the police.

The women stated that when they reported Danny Masterson to church officials, they were informed that they had not been sexually assaulted, required to participate in ethics training, and counselled against reporting a member of such high standing to criminal enforcement.

Reinhold Mueller, a deputy district attorney, made the following statement to the jury during his closing argument: “They were raped, they were punished for it, and they were retaliated against.” They were taught by science that there is no justice for them. You have the chance to convince them that justice exists.

The church vigorously refuted claims that it had a rule prohibiting adherents from approaching secular authorities.

In this case, the testimony was explicit and intense. In 2003, two women who knew Masterson through his church connections claimed he offered them alcohol, which caused them to feel drunk or pass out, before he forcefully assaulted them.

The third claimed she woke up to discover Danny Masterson raping her and had to yank his hair to stop him. She had been seeing him for five years at the time.

The topic of drug use was extremely important in the retrial. Olmedo initially only permitted accusers and prosecutors to mention their confusion and to hint that they had taken drugs. The second time, they were permitted to directly debate it, and the prosecution tried in vain to make it a significant element.

The assistant district attorney, Ariel Anson, made this claim in her closing statement: “The defendant drugs his victims to gain control.” He does this to prevent his victims from giving their permission.

There are no drug-related charges against Masterson, and there is no toxicology data to support the claim. Due to the inclusion of the matter, his attorney requested a mistrial. The request was turned down, but the matter will probably play a significant role in any prospective appeal.

These allegations relate to a time when Masterson was at the height of his stardom, playing the role of Steven Hyde on Fox’s That ’70s Show from 1998 to 2006, which launched the careers of Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace.

On the 2016 Netflix comedy The Ranch, Masterson reconnected with Kutcher, but the project was cancelled when an LAPD investigation became public in December 2017.