After a month of harrowing testimony from girls who say they had been raped by probably the most highly effective man in Hollywood, Los Angeles prosecutors rested their case towards Harvey Weinstein on Thursday.
Weinstein, 70, has sat stoically in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom as a bunch of eight former fashions and actors cried, screamed and cursed at instances whereas describing brutal assaults in lodge rooms in Southern California, London and Puerto Rico.
Many of the ladies stated they felt unable to battle off the large Weinstein within the second after which feared reporting him to police for years as a result of he might finish their careers with a cellphone name.
Much of the case has centered on the #MeToo motion, of which Weinstein turned the archvillain after investigative reviews revealed by the New Yorker and the New York Times in 2017.
Many of Weinstein’s victims didn’t come ahead to police till after the motion started, believing the sheer variety of girls talking out would insulate anyone particular person from being steamrolled by Weinstein and his military of attorneys and public relations professionals.
But Weinstein’s protection counsel has sought to color the timing of the reviews as handy, saying lots of the victims had been participating in revisionist historical past and are actually describing beforehand consensual, “transactional” relationships with Weinstein as rape.
The protection will start presenting its case Nov. 28, after a one-week break for the Thanksgiving vacation. Attorneys Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson haven’t stated whom they plan to name, and it’s unclear whether or not Weinstein will testify.
If convicted as charged, Weinstein faces a de facto life sentence in a California jail on prime of the 20 years remaining on his sentence stemming from a 2020 rape conviction in New York. Weinstein has denied all wrongdoing and is interesting the New York case.
Weinstein was initially charged with 11 counts of rape and sexual battery in L.A. County, however 4 of these prices had been dismissed earlier this week, when Deputy Dist. Atty. Paul Thompson admitted he was “unable to proceed” on the allegations made by a girl recognized solely as Jane Doe 5.
Neither Thompson nor Weinstein’s attorneys have commented on the matter, however sources have instructed The Times the girl lives outdoors the nation and couldn’t be compelled to testify by the district lawyer’s workplace.
The prosecution’s case wrapped up this week with a lot of the deal with the extraordinary testimony of Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Before she met her husband, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Siebel Newsom was an aspiring actor in 2005 when Weinstein summoned her to a room on the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.
She alleged that what she believed was a gathering about her profession spiraled right into a violent sexual encounter when Weinstein emerged from a toilet in a gown touching his penis.
For 45 minutes, she stated this week, Weinstein repeatedly instructed her quite a few A-list actors had had intercourse with him to advance their careers. Siebel Newsom stated she cried and begged him to go away her alone, even citing the loss of life of her sister at one level.
Eventually, she alleged, he pressured himself on her. Unable to flee, Siebel Newsom stated she feigned an orgasm and stroked Weinstein’s penis in a determined bid to finish the assault.
“I just did it to make it stop,” Siebel Newsom stated Monday. “I just wanted to get the f— out of there. Excuse my language. I’m sorry, I just wanted to get out.”
The Times doesn’t determine victims of sexual assault except they identify themselves in civil court docket proceedings or converse out publicly. While the ladies testifying towards Weinstein did so anonymously, Siebel Newsom accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct in a 2017 essay. Others both testified in his New York trial or have accused him of rape in information conferences or lawsuits.
The remaining accuser to take the stand towards Weinstein was actress and mannequin Natassia Malthe, who described a 2008 assault inside a London lodge after the British Academy Film Awards. For a number of hours Wednesday, Malthe — who publicly accused Weinstein of assault in 2017 along with her lawyer, Gloria Allred, at her aspect — talked by means of her troubling years-long dynamic with the mogul.
The two first met in 2002 in New York, the place Malthe claimed Weinstein leered at her whereas she sat subsequent to supermodel Naomi Campbell, however they by no means truly spoke. Five years later, she stated Weinstein approached her at Fashion Week in Manhattan and requested for her lodge room quantity, however Malthe ignored him.
A 12 months later, on the BAFTA awards, Malthe stated she felt her profession was ascendant. She had been chosen to mannequin because the face of a $100-million advertising and marketing marketing campaign and believed she was underneath a microscope through the journey to London. Then Weinstein appeared at her door.
“My publicist schooled me that when you are the face of a brand, your image had to be responsible, you had to be squeaky clean,” she stated. “Anything that could ruin my reputation was bad for the brand.”
Fearing Weinstein’s ruckus would draw her undesirable consideration, Malthe stated she opened the door.
Weinstein instructed her “no one gets to be like an A-lister unless it goes through me,” then pushed her onto the mattress and raped her, Malthe alleged. The mannequin stated she froze as she considered how a lot affect Weinstein might wield in her life past that second.
“The asymmetrical power situation was so large. I felt like there was this powerful guy who could ruin my career, who had the destiny of people’s life in his hands,” she stated. “I was 98 pounds at the time because I refused to eat. I was eating just vegetables to fit into the clothes that I was given. … He was larger than now … maybe triple the size.”
But Malthe’s testimony additionally invited the protection to grill her about her resolution to remain in contact with Weinstein after the alleged assault, a tactic they’ve employed repeatedly towards Siebel Newsom and different witnesses.
Malthe stated Weinstein later despatched her a script for a musical. She attended an audition for the challenge, titled “Nine,” leading to her as soon as once more being pulled right into a scenario the place she was alone with Weinstein and one other girl. Malthe stated she watched the girl carry out oral intercourse on Weisntein however rejected their affords to have a threesome.
Years later, Malthe stated she and Weinstein spoke on the American Film Institute competition in Los Angeles. According to Malthe’s testimony, she confronted him and questioned if he had visited a therapist, however she later stated she had additionally watched him bathe bare.
Malthe described the second as one the place she felt Weinstein was “human” after which described one other scenario the place she wound up alone with Weinstein and, she alleged, he started masturbating in entrance of her after she was led right into a one-on-one assembly with the mogul.
“This is like the fourth time that you’ve followed along with some assistant against your will,” requested an incredulous Werksman. “Have you ever had your hand burned by touching a hot stove?”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”