That 70s Show actor Danny Masterson has been transferred to a state prison, three months after being convicted of raping two women. The 47-year-old's mugshot has also been released; in the picture he is wearing an orange jumpsuit and is seen looking amused with a vague smile on his face.
Danny was admitted to the North Kern State Prison on Wednesday December 28, 2023, and is "going through the classification and reception process" according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He has been held at the Los Angeles County jail since September when he was sentenced to 30 years in prison.
The actor was convicted on two of three forcible rape charges in May 2023. He has always maintained his innocence.
One of the more prominent members of the Church of Scientology, Danny was accused of raping three women at his Hollywood Hills home between 2001 and 2003. The jury convicted him of the rape of two women but did not reach a verdict on an allegation from November 2001 involving a former girlfriend.
He was sentenced to 15 years to life on each of the two charges, and the Judge ordered them to be served consecutively.
“Mr. Masterson, you are not the victim here. Your actions 20 years ago took away another person’s voice and choice. Your actions 20 years ago were criminal, and that is why you are here,” Judge Charlaine Olmedo said in the courtroom on Thursday September 7, 2022.
The decision came after the first trial ended in November 2022 with a hung jury; the judge opted to re-try the case with a new set of jurors. The prosecution argued throughout the second trial that the women had been drugged; the first trial saw the women testify that they had little to no memory after taking a drink prepared by Danny at the time of the incident, but they did not clearly state that he had drugged them.
At the sentencing in Los Angeles' downtown court, Jane Doe 1 called the actor “a true coward and heartless monster," as Jane Doe 2 spoke directly to Danny, who was in the courtroom.
"I still have to contend with what you did to me that night… That takes a life’s worth of therapy to repair. Every time I think I’m okay, that rape comes back to me," she said. Jane Doe 3 revealed she has been diagnosed with PTSD.
Danny married Bijou Phillips, the daughter of John Phillips of The Mamas and the Papas and his third wife Geneviève Waïte, in 2011. They welcomed their daughter in 2014.
Weeks after the sentencing, Bijou filed for divorce. The divorce documents cited "irreconcilable differences," and Bijou sought full custody of their nine-year-old daughter, Fianna.
That 70s Show ran for eight years between 1998 and 2006, and focused on the lives of a group of six teenage friends living in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin in the late 1970s. Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Laura Prepon, and Wilmer Valderra all starred alongside Danny.
They later issued a public apology video, and Ashton resigned from Thorn, the anti-child sex abuse organization he co-founded with then-wife Demi Moore in 2009.