Chasey Ridgley

This is the fourth in a series of articles on the case of The People vs. Daniel Masterson in which Masterson is charged with sexual assaulting three women in 2001 and 2003. You can find links to all of Crime Story’s coverage of this case here. The line at the county clerk’s office within the Clara Shortridge Foltz Center for Criminal Justice is long, even during the citywide shutdown due to Covid-19 guidelines. Meeting with a clerk is “by appointment only,” so I make sure to call before I come, slotting myself into the soonest available time. The clerk — the...

This is the third in a series of articles on the case of The People vs. Daniel Masterson in which Masterson is charged with sexual assaulting three women in 2001 and 2003. You can find links to all of Crime Story's coverage of this case here. Bombshell, the 2019 film, dramatizes the fall of Roger Ailes — the media mogul accused of sexually assaulting women at the FOX News media empire that he governed. Charlize Theron, Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie lent their stardom to amplify these stories of workplace harassment and explore how FOX News shielded and enabled perpetrators,...

In January of 2017, hundreds of thousands of protesters, mostly women, took to the streets in cities and towns across the United States. The protestors wore pink “pussyhats” and brandished signs saying “Resist” or “This episode of The Handmaid’s Tale sucks.” The protest came on the heels of the 2016 Presidential election and coincided with the fledgling  #MeToo movement. Suddenly and refreshingly, women who had experienced abuse at the hands of men were riding the wave of a momentum that could carry them forward, amplifying their collective voices as they pushed for the President and, eventually, titans of industry, media...

This is the first in a series of articles on the case of The People of the State of California vs. Daniel Peter Masterson. Below, we have embedded Crime Story's exclusive video highlights of the hearing examined in this article. The crowds inside the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center are considerably thinner these days. The building is soaked in new safety measures put into place due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The security check point on the first floor no longer has a line out the door. The elevators, normally filled to the brim with all kinds of people...