Source: Myung J. Chun / Getty
Danny Masterson, the actor most known for his role as Stephen Hyde on the hit sitcom “That ’70s Show,” has been sentenced to 30 years to life in prison after being convicted of rape.
“When you raped me, you stole from me,” said one woman who Masterson was convicted of raping in 2003. “That’s what rape is, a theft of the spirit.”
“You are pathetic, disturbed and completely violent,” she said. “The world is better off with you in prison.”
Masterson was found guilty on two counts of forcible rape in May. The jury was not able to reach a verdict on an additional count of rape involving a third woman.
Masterson, who is a Scientologist, was said to have been protected by Scientology officials for years after he drugged and sexually assaulted the women, who were also Scientologists but have left the church since, in three separate incidents between 2001 and 2003. They testified that the church barred them from reporting the assaults to police, blamed them for the alleged rapes and harassed, intimidated and stalked them.
“I was terrorized, harassed and had my privacy invaded daily by cult of Scientology for almost seven years,” Jane Doe 2 told the court.
Many of Masterson’s Hollywood family members were in court on Thursday, including his wife, actress and model Bijou Phillips.
Masterson starred in “That ’70s Show” from 1998 to 2006 along with Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, and Topher Grace.
He had reunited with Kutcher on the 2016 Netflix comedy “The Ranch,” but was written off the show when the Los Angeles Police Department investigation was revealed the following year.
