Almost a year after being initially charged with the alleged rape of three women, That ’70s Show actor Danny Masterson has been finally ordered to stand trial. According to Variety, Judge Charlaine F. Olmedo ruled Friday that prosecutors had provided enough evidence at this week’s preliminary hearing for the case to move forward. All three of The Ranch star’s accusers testified beginning on Tuesday, providing grim details of his alleged crimes. According to one woman, when she attempted to resist during an April 2003 assault at Masterson’s Hollywood home, the actor allegedly threatened her with a gun pulled from his nightstand.
Another woman described being allegedly raped by Masterson in late 2003, while the third said the actor had raped her in November 2001 during their six-year-long relationship. Masterson has denied the claims against him and plead not guilty to the charges, which were the result of a yearslong investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department. Once the claims of sexual assault and abuse became public knowledge, Masterson was removed from Netflix’s The Ranch in 2017.
Meanwhile, the actor also faces a civil lawsuit, which alleges Masterson and the Church of Scientology launched a campaign of harassment against his accusers as a means to intimidate or punish them for going to police, including one incident in which one accuser’s dog was allegedly poisoned. In December, a judge ruled that four of his accusers would need to enter “religious arbitration†with the Church of Scientology, as they had previously signed an agreement to do so as members of the religion. However, at least one accuser is not a member of Scientology and signed no such agreement. The ruling only affects civil proceedings against the actor.
Masterson is due back in court to be arraigned next month on June 7. If found guilty, he could face up to 45 years in prison.