EXCLUSIVE: The Danny Masterson jury foreman speaks in first public interview

On November 30, the jury in the Danny Masterson rape trial in Los Angeles informed Judge Charlaine Olmedo that it was hopelessly deadlocked.

She brought the jury into the courtroom and quizzed the man who turned out to be the foreman, a tall older Black man, who informed her that after numerous votes over several days, the numbers were not budging.

Judge Olmedo then declared a mistrial, and asked the foreman for the vote counts. They were as follows:

Count 1 (Jane Doe 1) 2 for guilty, 10 for not guilty

Count 2 (Jane Doe 2) 4 for guilty, 8 for not guilty

Count 3 (Jane Doe 3) 5 for guilty, 7 for not guilty

Several days later, the foreman’s daughter reached out to podcaster and former Scientology Sea Org officer Chris Shelton, saying that she was a fan of his work. (It turned out she was also an Underground Bunker reader.) She offered to put him in touch with her father, who might be interested in an interview.

Chris not only set up an interview, but invited us to participate as well.

Once the interview began, we were able to positively identify the foreman, who told us his name is Earl. (He gave us permission to use his first name in the interview.)

We then began asking him about the weeks of testimony in the trial and the six days the jury spent in deliberation — three days before the Thanksgiving week, and then three more days after having two jury members replaced after the vacation week. (Earl was a member of the original 12 jurors seated.)

Earl said that in each case some of the jurors had problems with inconsistencies in the testimony of the three women that arose from statements they had given police in past years, inconsistencies that were highlighted by defense attorney Philip Cohen.

When we asked him about some of the things that were rumored about the jury — that it had been influenced by Cohen’s wardrobe, or the large showing by the Masterson family, or by things said by witnesses in the court hallway — he dismissed all of those suggestions. The jury had simply looked at the evidence, and were divided over the differences that Cohen had brought up in cross-examination, he said.

Also, he said that the jury had mostly disregarded Scientology’s influence on the case, as well as the length of time that had passed since the incidents. He also said the jury did not spend much time on the testimony by the prosecution’s expert on sexual assault.

In general, he said, the prosecution could have done a better job presenting material and setting up testimony.

We’re interested in your thoughts about Earl’s perspective on the case. He made suggestions for how the prosecution could present material in a retrial, and we’d like to hear your thoughts on that as well.

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