In 2023, Danny Masterson was found guilty on rape charges; the court sentenced him to 30 years in prison.
Now, he is seeking an overturn of his conviction. In doing so, he slammed his attorney, Phillip Cohen, for not putting up a strong defense for him during the trial.
According to reports, his habeas corpus raised criticism about not calling any witnesses; also, the filing states that he failed to push back on the prosecution’s Scientology claims.
He “implored [Cohen] to present at least a minimal modicum of defense evidence, but counsel refused.”
“Cohen had a longstanding aversion to presenting affirmative defense evidence in the cases he tried,” the filing alleges.
It continues, “He personally spoke to only two of the more than 20 potential witnesses who had been strongly recommended by co-counsel Karen Goldstein and investigator Lynda Larsen.”
“He wrote off the great majority of them without any personal contact, notwithstanding their manifestly exculpatory prior statements to the police and to investigators.”
“This failure of due diligence violated the well-settled principle of Sixth Amendment case law that an attorney must interview potential defense witnesses as a necessary foundation for making a reasoned decision about trial strategy.”
It is worth noting that the court found Danny guilty of raping two women after he first stood trial in 2022.
