A former television actor is seeking to overturn his rape convictions, arguing in a new legal filing that his trial attorney provided an ineffective defense. The actor, sentenced to 30 years in prison last year, claims his lawyer failed to present key witnesses and did not adequately counter the prosecution’s focus on his religious affiliation.
The petition, filed this week, contends that the defense attorney refused to call available witnesses who could have challenged the credibility of the accusers. It further alleges the lawyer opted not to present a member of the actor’s religious community to directly refute prosecution claims about the community’s internal policies, which were a central theme at trial.
Instead, the defense strategy reportedly aimed to downplay the actor’s religious ties, suggesting the topic was introduced to compensate for weaknesses in the prosecution’s evidence. The new filing asserts that this approach left a “wealth of directly exculpatory evidence” unseen by the jury.
This latest petition follows a separate, extensive appeal filed late last year, which argued that judicial errors and bias violated the actor’s right to a fair trial. That appeal claimed the proceedings were “rife with erroneous judicial rulings” that improperly influenced the jury’s perception of the evidence.
The actor was convicted in 2023 on charges relating to assaults that occurred two decades prior. He remains in custody serving his sentence as the new legal challenges move forward.
