A Jane Doe witness testifying in the criminal rape trial of Danny Masterson on Wednesday told how the “That 70s Show” star first engaged her with a “predatory” stare, demanded her number and immediately began issuing forceful commands – then repeatedly pushed through her clear boundaries in an encounter at his Los Angeles home that escalated to rape.
Known as “N Trout” for purposes of trial, the witness also testified – as previous witnesses have done – that she became “fuzzy” and feeling “out of control” after drinking a single alcoholic beverage given her by Masterson. None of the witnesses has specifically said they were drugged, but the inference has been strong.
N Trout told the jury she met Masterson through Scientology, which her mother involved her in as a teen to deal with anxiety. She said her mom was no longer a practicing member, but believed in the “tenets” of Scientology, including a strict ban on anti-anxiety medications and other psychotropic drugs.
The witness said she was cast in a TV sitcom in 2000, and began to hang around Scientology’s celebrity center, where she encountered Masterson and his friend group. They knew one another on a casual, mutual-friends basis at first, but that all changed one night when the group went out to a nearby bar called The Well in 2003.
Sitting in a VIP booth, she said Masterson was “staring at me so intently, in such a laser-focused way. He was like boring a hole into my head, staring. I was drinking this water. When I stopped drinking the water, when I went and looked all three of them were staring at me. They were really watching Danny watch me and it was a very intent, predatory stare.”
She admitted she was intimidated but somewhat flattered by the attention, “but it was a real mixture of emotions. I was very young and anxious and flattered and trying to enjoy myself and that level of attention.”
As they were leaving, she said, Masterson became very direct. “‘Give me your number,’ like that,” she said. “I gave him my number. I was like, ‘OK.’”
She said within a day, he began an aggressive pressure campaign: “He was texting kind of rapidly and very directly and very aggressive and I was surprised,” she said. “He started commanding and demanding I come over right now. It was in the evening and I was like, ‘That’s not a date, dude.”
He persisted. “He kept saying ‘Come over right now, you’re getting in my jacuzzi. Bring a bathing suit. Bring your bikini. You’re getting in my jacuzzi,’ she said. “I thought it was obnoxious. I think I texted ‘No, you can take me on a date.’ He was just like ‘No – come over now.’ How about we hang out another time? ‘No you’re coming over now. You’re getting in my pool and you’re getting in my jacuzzi.’ I said ‘No, if I come over we can have a glass of wine, and … have glass of wine. I’m not getting in your pool. I don’t want to take my clothes off.’”
At times N Trout became emotional and emphatic, and this was one: “I just totally didn’t grasp why there was so much aggression and commanding what to do. … He must just have this way of being commanding, he’s so confident. Maybe this is just his way of flirting. I was very worried about being used or treated in a way that was disrespectful.”
But having established boundaries and believing she could handle herself, she walked over to his house some time after 8 p.m. When she arrived, “he handed me a glass of red wine right away. He was standing, staring at me and he said ‘Drink it. Now.’”
He continued pressuring her to drink the wine while they chatted, she said. When they walked outside, he began to demand that she take her clothes off.
“I was kind of giggling and nervous and saying ‘No, I’m not taking off my clothes,” she said.
He continued to insist, then said if she didn’t take her clothes off, he would take them off. “I was trying to kind of appease him. He was so commanding and I didn’t want to incite or arouse any kind of violence around him.”
At that moment, N Trout said she started to feel different.
“That’s when things started to feel very heavy in my body. I felt more out of it, right when he was demanding to get my clothes off. My sense became much more fuzzy and different … like a [whooshing noise]. It felt very intense like being drunk. Like not a lot of energy.”
From there, she says her memories range moment-to-moment from total blackout to extremely vivid. She remembers clearly she relented – and started removing her clothes.
“I didn’t have myself any more,” she said. “I wasn’t in control. Not my choice. Something was hitting me. I felt not with it. I felt out of it.”
She said she doesn’t remember how she got in Masterson’s jacuzzi, but recalled feeling “really out of it” as he began kissing, groping and fingering her.
“I was pretty out of it and I was trying to keep it from escalating the very best I could,” she said. “I did not want to have sex. I didn’t want any of what was happening. I didn’t want to be in the jacuzzi. I did not want to have him touching my vagina. I didn’t want sex of any kind. I’d said that. I’d said that to him.”
Becoming emphatic again, and fighting back tears, she said: “I did start saying as things escalating, I said, ‘We are not having sex, Danny.’”
They went inside, where he demanded she get in his shower. She complied “because he was so commanding,” and then he came into the shower with her. “I was against the wall and he was kissing me very intensely. I think he started to finger me [and she was saying] “No, you can’t do that.”
At that point, she said, “I was afraid to assert myself. He was really intense and driven to have what was happening. I just was trying to manage it the best as I could … All of a sudden he went inside me with his penis really fast – right in the shower, and I freaked out. And I had already said to him ‘No.’ I thought ‘What the fuck. What are you doing? Get out of me. Why did you do that. I told you no!’”
N Trout was expected to continue her testimony Wednesday.
Masterson was formally charged in 2020, but allegations first came to light in 2017 when a blogger covering Scientology reported that detectives were investigating the actor after three women came forward with accusations of rape and assault. The women claim they came into contact with Masterson in the early 2000s through the Church of Scientology, and each has said they were pressured by the Church to keep quiet.
Masterson has maintained his innocence, and his family, including his brothers and wife Bijou Phillips, have been in court daily to support him.
Also Wednesday, the judged dismissed Juror No. 10, a man who kept falling asleep during testimony. He was replaced by a woman alternate, making the panel now eight women and four men.
