TRICIA VESSEY CROSS-EXAMINATION: Danny Masterson Trial, Day 18, end of day report

[Tricia Vessey]

[This report was produced live during a court hearing with a lot going on. There will be typos. Please don't email us about typos that you find.]

Late afternoon session.

We will be continuing with cross-examination of actress Tricia Vessey.

If you missed our earlier notice, Ms. Vessey has given the Underground Bunker permission to reveal that she is Jane Doe 4.

Also, a note: She is a witness in the case, and Masterson is not being charged on her allegations.

Ms. Vessey is back on the stand. Jurors coming in.

Cross-examination continues.

Cohen: After your experiences with Mr. Masterson and into the 2000s, 2010s, you were still friend with him?

No.

Do you recall telling Det. Vargas, after that experience I was his "friend still"

You specified the 2010s. I was not his friend in the 2010s.

Did you tell Det Vargas, I was his friend still.

Yes.

You're saying, your friendship ended prior to the 2010?

At some point.

How about 2017?

No

Not friends in 2017?

That's correct.

When you read that Facebook post, do you recall telling Det Vargas that you had read it about "two years ago." So you interviewed in 2019, putting it about 2017.

I don't recall that.

Would it help to look at a transcript?

Sure. (Checks) Yes.

Did you tell Det Vargas in the 2019 interview that maybe two years ago, you had seen a Facebook post about Danny?

Yes.

When you saw that post, were you still friends at that point?

No.

When you saw it, did you reach out to his brother?

Yes.

And did you reach out to Chris Masterson to find out if Danny was OK? (Obj, overruled)

I was actually perplexed to some degree why I reached out to Chris, but there was an aspect of fear.

You're perplexed now that you reached out to Chris, or you were perplexed when you told Det Vargas in 2019 about it? You were perplexed in 2019?

Yes.

Then in 2017, the Facebook post, to 2019, this thought about Mr. Masterson having raped you never crossed your mind, correct?

I'm confused by...what? (Asked and answered, sustained)

Then in 2019, you see an article about Masterson, correct.

I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to.

Did you tell Det Vargas that in 2019, you had seen an article about him?

Yes.

And then after seeing an article, you and JD2 speak, correct?

I sent her a message.

And when you and she communicate, that becomes the first time that you mention to anyone your experience with Masterson.

Yes.

I'm going to incident number 1, after La Poubelle. Were you lightly drunk is that the phrase you used?

Yeah.

At La Poubelle you had not eaten any food.

I don't recall.

You don't recall telling Det Vargas.

I don't remember that we were there for dinner, that doesn't mean I was on an empty stomach.

And at La Poubelle you had two glasses of wine.

That's correct.

You then go with a number of people to Masterson's house.

And there you had between four to five drinks, correct?

As I stated I don't quite know. I estimated that I had at least a few.

Would it help to see a transcript with Mr. Mueller?

Sure. (Checks.) Yeah, I said I had four or five drinks, maybe.

When you just highlighted the word maybe, you think it was possibly less.

When I testified earlier that maybe three, I don't recall the exact number.

Maybe you had more than four or five?

I'm sure I didn't have that much, I wouldn't function.

That's what happens when you drink that much? Were you drinking a lot that night?

I am estimating it on how drunk I felt.

And you said "lightly drunk."

That's right.

And you had a blunt?

I had a hit of a blunt. I didn't smoke the entire thing.

And you weren't used to smoking marijuana?

I would say that I would occasionally smoke a little bit of weed.

Did you tell DA Mueller in 2019, that during this time period you didn't usually smoke weed.

Yeah, I wasn't like a pot head.

That's not what I'm asking. I'm asking did you tell Mueller you didn't usually smoke weed.

That's correct.

So we have two glasses of wine at La Poubelle, four or five at Masterson, and a hit of weed you don't usually do, and you're "lightly drunk." (Obj, sustained.) Did you tell Mr. Mueller that you were "really drunk."

I remember telling him that I was drinking.

Did you tell him in 2019 that you were really drunk.

I don't remember my exact phrasing.

Would it help to look at a transcript?

Sure. (Checks.) OK.

Did you tell him you were "really drunk."

I was describing the end of the night in the room when I suddenly felt really out of it.

Did you tell him you were really drunk.

Yes.

Did you tell him that sex kind of happens when people are drinking. (Obj, overruled)

I was explaining to him that that's how I dealt with what happened in my mind the next day. It was a feeling that those types of incidents happen in those kinds of scenarios.

Would that be a yes?

Yes.

Did you tell him that you stopped drinking about 20 years ago?

Yes.

Were you kind of on auto-pilot in incident one? (Obj, be more specific) Did you use the term auto-pilot in the 2019 interview with Mueller?

I could have. I certainly felt in the morning when I didn't know how to deal with it, that I went into an auto-pilot.

Did you tell him that during the night you were on auto-pilot.

I don't recall.

Does that mean to you that you're functioning, doing things, just kind of out of habit?

I believe that in my usage of it, when describing the next morning, is that I got my clothes, I got dressed, I got out of there in an auto-pilot type of way. Just trying to get out of there.

Just want to touch on Incident #2 for a moment. Do you recall being specifically asked by Det Vargas, this incident #2, "did you ask him or tell him, what are you doing or anything to stop his behavior?"

I don't recall every aspect of the interview.

Would it help to look at a transcript?

Sure. (Checks.) OK

Do you remember him asking that question?

I don't, but I can see it on the transcript?

Do you recall what your answer was?

I saw it on the transcript, but I don't recall, line by line, the entire interview.

Incident number 1. When you woke up the next morning, were your clothes strewn around the room?

I think that's, I described my clothes being around the room.

Did you give any indication to Vargas or Mueller that they were damaged in any way.

Not that I can recall.

Did you ever tell Deputy DA Mueller that the next day after incident 1 that your anus hurt?

I told him that I was sore.

My question is a little different. During the interview did you tell him the next day your anus hurt?

i don't think I referred specifically to my anus.

Did you tell Det Vargas that the next day your anus was hurting?

I don't recall.

Did you tell Mueller that your thighs were bruised?

I don't recall.

Did you tell Vargas?

I don't recall.

Do you have any pictures of your thighs being bruised.

No.

After incident one, you said you would shake being around him.

Correct.

Would it be fair you would shake even more after incident two?

I don't know if I ever quantified how much shaking I went through.

(Cohen is describing the two of them auditioning for the same film, and taking rides together. And having readings.)

I recall him asking to go to the audition together, and reading together with him one time.

You recall him asking, and do you recall going with him?

Yes, one time.

In 1998, you lived with Sean Pillar and Chris Masterson for a while, right?

I wouldn't say I lived there. I stayed there in between one place and another for a brief time.

So you stayed at a residence that was shared with Chris and Sean?

That's correct.

And when you stayed there, Masterson would come by quite a bit.

Correct.

Did (Danny) Masterson give you a ride to Air One on multiple occasions?

No.

(Cohen reviews her testimony that he gave her a ride home from Air One.) One occasion or more?

Specifically from Air One, one occasion.

Did you tell Mueller that you would walk over to Air One all the time on Beverly and that a couple of times Danny Masterson would stop and give me a ride.

He gave me a ride a couple of times, but only one specifically from Air One.

So there are multiple times when you are walking home when Masterson would pull over and ask to give you a ride and you would voluntarily get into his car and take you home.

Yes.

Were you shaking then?

Yes.

Were you shaking do your readings on that movie?

I was unnerved. I don't know to what degree I was shaking. But I would feel shaken.

Was there a time when Masterson held a party at Hollywood Hotel?

Yes.

Did he send a car to pick you up for the party?

I recall Chris Masterson coming to get me to take me to a party.

A party that Danny was throwing?

He was dj-ing under the name Donkey Punch? That was his dj name, Donkey Punch. (Judge Olmedo says that will be stricken.)

Did you tell Mueller for many years you didn't know how to think about the incidents, but being sober for 20 years changed your perception.

That's true. Being sober has certainly helped with clarifying.

Did you tell Mueller what you had spoken with JD2?

I am not sure.

Would it help to see a transcript?

Sure. (Checks.) OK.

You had told Mueller, you know I told her that.

No, because that's out of context to the line prior to that.

My question is, did you start to tell Mr. Mueller what you had told JD2, with the line, "but you know I told her that..."

No.

The transcript doesn't say that?

Well it's out of context from the prior line, which you aren't saying.

Judge Olmedo: Time to break for the day. Asks the jury and witness to be back tomorrow morning at 9 am.

Jury and witness out.

Judge Olmedo asks a woman in the gallery her name. It is a woman who had identified herself to us earlier as a Bunker reader. We have no idea what the judge wants to ask her about.

Judge asks the entire audience to leave so they can have a sidebar, and wants the woman to remain behind.

I am hearing from the other reporters that the woman, who was sitting over by the jury, was asked by a deputy to show her notes.

When she comes out she just says they were concerned about her watching the jury. One of the reporters tells her that's her right. The woman says she's going to come back tomorrow. She says she can talk about it but she'd rather not.

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