Woman Alleges Danny Masterson Brandished Gun After Raping Her

• One of Danny Masterson’s accusers continued her testimony in an LA courtroom on Wednesday.
• The woman, identified as Jen B., said Masterson assaulted her on two separate occasions in 2002 and 2003.
• Jen testified that Masterson pulled a gun out of a nightstand after the second incident.

A lead witness in Danny Masterson’s ongoing rape trial offered harrowing testimony on Wednesday as she alleged the “That 70s Show” actor sexually assaulted her on two separate occasions in 2002 and 2003, and brandished a gun to threaten her after the second incident.

Arguments in Masterson’s Los Angeles Superior Court trial, which is expected to last several weeks, began Tuesday. One of Masterson’s accusers, Jane Doe 1, or Jen. B., was first to take the stand and continued her testimony on Wednesday morning.

The trial comes after Masterson’s ex-girlfriend Chrissie Carnell Bixler and three other women filed a civil lawsuit in June 2019 accusing Masterson of sexually assaulting them between 2001 and 2003. Their accounts in the civil lawsuit led to the criminal charges filed by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in 2020.

Masterson and his legal team have denied the allegations, calling them “outrageous.” He pleaded not guilty to the charges, and during opening statements Tuesday, Masterson’s attorney said the women’s accounts of the incidents had inconsistencies and that they had potentially discussed the details with one another.

The 2019 civil lawsuit also names the Church of Scientology — Masterson is a longtime member of the organization, and his accusers are all former members — though the church is not on trial in the current, criminal case.

The first alleged assault

In court on Tuesday, Jen described the first alleged incident, which the district attorney did not bring as one of the three criminal counts against Masterson.

She told the courtroom that she first met Masterson around 1997 when she was 24 years old. As a lifelong member of Scientology, Jen said she would frequently see the actor at church events and gatherings. She testified that her best friend at the time worked for Masterson and often ran errands for him.

Jen said she had a “friendly, informal” relationship with Masterson leading into the first alleged assault incident.

In September 2002, Jen said she and a friend met up with Masterson at a bar after seeing a movie. Masterson offered to let them stay at his house nearby as the group continued to drink, according to Jen, who said the actor was ordering strong drinks for her throughout the night. Around 2 a.m., Jen said she rode back with Masterson to his house.

“I was really drunk, I couldn’t walk up the stairs,” she testified. “I was laughing and he was shushing me.”

Jen said she realized she wasn’t particularly “mentally alert” and said she kept asking Masterson “what’s happening.” She said she fell asleep and the next thing she remembered was awaking to Masterson moving her and feeling a sharp pain in her rear side. Jen testified that she didn’t remember having any clothes on.

Jen told the courtroom that she pulled on the bed and swatted at Masterson to try and get him to stop as she screamed “no” in response to intense pain. She said she fell asleep soon after and Masterson was not in the house when she woke the next morning.

She testified that she felt “embarrassed and ashamed” in the aftermath, especially as her fellow Scientologists and friends expressed disbelief and suggested she was to blame for the incident.

“I was forced to make peace, and bury the hatchet, so we could be ‘cool,'” Jen said.

 

 

Photo by Kristy Leibowitz/Getty Images

 

The second incident

Jen said she avoided seeing Masterson through the end of 2002. But in April 2003, she was with a group of friends who were tasked with picking up a pair of keys from Masterson’s house.

When the group arrived at Masterson’s house, there were already about 15 people partying as Masterson DJed in his living room, she testified. The plan, Jen said, was to pick up the keys and immediately leave, but Masterson soon greeted the group and brought her a drink.

As she sipped on the drink, Jen said Masterson started to pressure her to get in the jacuzzi and began dragging her by her wrists up the stairs to the tub. She testified that she was beginning to feel weak and confused, despite only having had about half a drink.

Wiping tears from her eyes in court on Wednesday, Jen said she protested as Masterson forced her into the jacuzzi. As she sat in the tub, she said her vision began to go blurry and she felt like she was “slipping under.” She began to deteriorate even quicker and said she remembered Masterson saying he was going to stick his fingers down her throat to make her throw up.

“He stuck his fingers down my throat,” she testified through tears. “I started to vomit into the toilet and onto my hair. I laid down on that floor, and my face was on the tile. It felt nice because it was cold and I wasn’t moving and I felt safe.”

She testified that she came to in the shower and found Masterson assaulting her. The actor then picked her up, put her on the bed, and began to have sex with her, she testified. Jen said she tried to fight back, putting a pillow in between their two bodies, but Masterson grabbed the pillow and began to smother her until she went unconscious.

“I thought I was gonna die and that he was gonna kill me,” she said.

At this point in her Wednesday testimony, Jen began to cry and had to excuse herself for a five-minute break.

When she returned to the stand she testified that Masterson angrily told her not to tell anyone about the incident in the immediate aftermath. She said she “faded to black” for a bit and then remembered a man’s voice at the bedroom door. Jen said she tried to reach for the nightstand but Masterson slammed the drawer on her hand and pulled out a gun.

Jen described the weapon as a “more modern” firearm and said Masterson told her to “shut the fuck up” and “don’t fucking move.”

A couple of days later, Jen said she and Masterson had a brief phone conversation where she asked him to explain what exactly had happened that night.

“He said ‘we had a good time,’ and I said ‘no, no, no’ and hung up,” Jen testified.

The second incident Jen described is one of the three counts of forcible rape for which Masterson is standing trial.

Masterson’s denial

Philip Cohen, a defense attorney for Masterson, briefly addressed Jen’s allegations during his Tuesday opening arguments, rejecting her previous statements about the assaults.

Cohen accused Jen of having inconsistencies in her story from the time she first reported the incidents to now. The attorney also said that Jen did not make mention of a gun, or the first instance of sexual assault when she first spoke to police in 2004.

Under cross-examination on Wednesday, Jen said she didn’t understand her first sexual interaction with Masterson in 2002 to be rape until around 2018, after a criminal investigation was underway.