In the days after the attack, the woman testified that bruises appeared on her wrists and neck area and that she had incredible pain in her genitalia.
Trigger Warning: This story contains details of sexual abuse that may be disturbing to readers.
Danny Masterson, known for his role as Steven Hyde in The '70's Show, welcomed Jen B into his home on the night of April 25, 2003. Masterson met Jen via a group of friends who were all involved with the Church of Scientology in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The woman had gone to Masterson's house to pick up a set of keys. According to ABC News, when Jen visited Masterson, she asked him for a drink with vodka in it— her first one that night.
However, about 20 minutes after she'd finished with her alcoholic beverage, she felt “blurry,” weak, and queasy. She didn't even have the strength to stand up on her own. Alarming details of that night from 18 years ago were laid bare during a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles Superior Court. A judge is trying to determine whether there is probable cause to order a trial against Masterson, who has been accused of raping four women. The actor posted a selfie with his wife, Bijou Phillips, dropping him off at court.
On Tuesday, May 18, Jen testified that she was sexually assaulted by Masterson, in his bed, that night when she was partially conscious. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyer Thomas Mesereau has said he would prove his client's innocence. “When I came to [my senses], he was on top of me and he was inside of me,” the woman recalled. “The first thing I recall is grabbing his hair to pull him off.”
After her first drink, she had no strength to resist Masterson as he picked her up and threw her into the jacuzzi. She testified that the actor carried her upstairs, where she vomited. He then put her in the shower, and she was barely conscious, but she awoke to find Masterson soaping her breasts. Immediately, she tried to punch him in the face, but as she was frail, she only managed to graze his chest with her hands, according to the Independent.
Though she only remembers bits and pieces here and there, Jen testified that Masterson then put her on the bed and raped her. She tried to resist, and even put a pillow on his face after failing to pull him away by his hair. But, he pushed the pillow right back at her. Then, he pulled a gun out from his bedside drawer and threatened her with it. An emotional Jen recalled how she couldn't even sit up when she got out.
A mutual friend, Luke Watson, tried to help her. “I couldn’t walk or stand, so he put me on the tile on the ground,” said Jen, who began crying then. She remained composed throughout her testimony. “I said, ‘Luke I can’t see,' and he said, ‘Open your eyes,’ and I didn’t know my eyes were closed. I couldn’t open my eyelids. I felt really, really sick.” Jen also testified that in the following days, bruises appeared on her wrists and neck area and that she had incredible pain in her genitalia.
When Mesereau cross-examined Jen, he asked her why there was no mention of the gun in a police report she filed a year after the incident took place. “Do you think that the police just forgot to put it in?” Mesereau said. Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo forbade the question after a prosecution objection. However, Mesereau kept poking and prodding as to why there were so many inconsistencies between her 2003 "knowledge report" and the 2004 police report.
In the knowledge report, Jen said that the Church of Scientology—of which her friends and family were all a part—strongly discouraged her from going to the cops to report the incident, because, by policy, she would be declared a “suppressive person” if she made a report against a member in good standing like Masterson. “I would lose my family and everyone I knew," she said. A year later, she decided to go to the cops anyway. She also admitted to Mesereau that though there were differences in both the reports, she tried to be truthful in every case.
Before the hearing, Masterson's lawyer argued that references to the church or harassment of women by officials and members should not be allowed, alleging that the prosecution and lead detective in the case had shown “religious bias in the most blatant form.” However, the judge didn't issue a blanket ban, citing that the victim would be allowed to discuss the church as it affected their state of mind. Masterson—who has been charged with three counts of rape by force or fear over attacks between 2001 and 2003—occasionally took notes in court and had no clear response to the testimony.
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