That ‘70s Show alum Danny Masterson was accused of sexual assault by multiple women in the early 2000s, and the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Us Weekly on Friday, March 3, that they are investigating the claims. No charges have been filed against Masterson at this time.
“The Los Angeles Police Department Robbery Homicide Division, Sexual Assault Section, is conducting an investigation involving the actor Danny Masterson,” the LAPD’s Robbery Homicide Division told Us in a statement. “Three women have come forward and disclosed that they were sexually assaulted by Masterson during the early 2000s.”
In a lengthy post to his blog, The Underground Bunker, journalist Tony Ortega published court documents that show claims of rape or sodomy allegedly committed by Masterson, 40, on three separate occasions.
According to Ortega, one of the victims first approached King of Queens alum Leah Remini, an outspoken critic of Scientology, when publicity for her new A&E series, Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, began. (Masterson was born and raised as a Scientologist; his three alleged victims were also practicing members of the controversial religion.) Remini, in turn, encouraged the victim to file a police report.
“I met with the LAPD. I met with Detective Reyes [of the robbery-homicide division, who was assigned the case], and I told her these victims deserve to be heard,” Remini, 46, told Ortega. “I asked her to do the right thing by these girls, and I told her that the world is watching.”
In response to the graphic allegations made in the published LAPD reports, as well as Ortega’s own interviews with alleged witnesses to a second victim’s assault, Masterson’s rep issued a statement denying all claims of sexual assault.
“We are aware of [the victim]’s 16-year-old allegations,” his rep said in the statement, referring to the first woman who filed a report. “It was only after [the victim] was in contact with Leah Remini that she made allegations of sexual assault by Mr. Masterson. The alleged incident occurred in the middle of their six year relationship, after which she continued to be his longtime girlfriend.”
According to the the Underground Bunker, the victim filed a police report last November about an incident that took place in December 2001, in which she alleged that Masterson had sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious.
Ortega reports that the victim, who was a Scientologist at the time of the alleged assault, wrote in a lengthy letter to LAPD Capt. William Hayes and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck that she was told at the time by Scientology officials not to go to the police with her accusations or she would face serious punishment. She alleged that Masterson was “not punished at all. They didn’t even call him to talk about it.”
She reportedly said in the letter that she ended up “breaking up with him two months later.” Us Weekly has reached out to the victim and the Church of Scientology with requests for comment.
