We’re still marveling this morning at the display put on yesterday by Deputy DA Ariel Anson as she began the government’s closing at the Danny Masterson retrial in Los Angeles.
After the first trial ended in a hung jury and mistrial in November, we said that one thing the prosecution could have done better was to provide the jury with a stronger narrative. Listening to a parade of witnesses in a complex, three-victim trial like this was hard enough on the men and women asked to sit in judgment. What they needed, we figured, was a more cohesive story to help them put together so much evidence that covered such a long span of time.
Well, that’s just what Anson did yesterday, grabbing everyone’s attention right from the start with her opening words: “It starts with a drink.” She then began providing that compelling narrative we felt was missing from the first trial…
The defendant drugs his victims to be in control. He does this to take away their ability to consent. This is not about consent. This is not about a defendant confusing their signals. When he drugs them, he wants to be in control. You don’t want to have sex? You don’t have a choice. You don’t want to have anal sex? You don’t have a choice. He makes that choice, and he does it over and over and over.
You saw those words in our report yesterday, and we could tell from your comments that you got a sense of how powerful they were. We just wanted to add, we just wish we could convey to you how well Anson came across. She’s the shortest person at the attorney table, but she commanded the attention of everyone in the room.
We won’t deny that defense attorney Philip Cohen, who followed her, skillfully does what he always does, raising questions about the differences in what the Jane Does said over time, in interviews they first gave police in 2004 and 2017 and what they’re testifying to now. Some of these differences seem slight, but Cohen knows that he simply needs to raise enough “reasonable doubt” in a few jurors’ minds to create another hung jury.
But we thought he might have made a misstep this time. He tried to convince the jury that Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 had embellished their stories because the incidents they described did not have enough “force” to qualify for the charges that Masterson is facing. With Jane Doe 1, Cohen implied that she might have made up the detail about Masterson brandishing a gun in order to embellish an incident that otherwise had no force. And Jane Doe 2 might have added drugging details for the same reason.
Deputy DA Reinhold Mueller, who came on to begin the government’s final rebuttal, made Cohen pay for those two suggestions. He pointed out the details of Jane Doe 1’s incident — that according to her testimony Masterson had smothered her with a pillow, pinned her arms back, and clamped his hand down on her throat while he was raping her — and said there was simply no question that this was the essence of force being used on a woman. And the same for Jane Doe 2, who testified to begging repeatedly that Danny stop as he flipped her over grabbed her hips and “jackhammered” her from behind. Again, this was plenty of force to fit the legal requirement.
It was a powerful reminder to finish the day. This morning, Mueller will finish the People’s final rebuttal and the jury will have the case.
We’ll have our reports coming to you from the courthouse, and then we’ll begin our verdict watch.
This time, the jury has a much more compelling narrative to sink its teeth into. But will it be enough?
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Truly grateful for Tony's summaries, as I could only read so much about the testimony before bailing...
Curious to see how long the jury deliberates...
Well done Mueller and Anson. You told the story well. Did Cohen just flail his arms and spout crap? It sure reads like that for me. I again marvel at the bravery of the Jane Does and I hope the jury was paying attention to all of the evidence.