NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein ‘s lawyer portrayed him because the falsely accused “authentic sinner” of the #MeToo period, whereas a prosecutor instructed jurors at his intercourse crimes retrial Tuesday that the previous film mogul preyed on less-powerful girls he thought would by no means converse up.
The 2 sides took very totally different tones of their closing arguments, that are as a consequence of conclude Wednesday. Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, veered into folksy jokes and theatricality — typically re-enacting witnesses’ habits — as he contended that his shopper engaged in a “courting game,” not crimes. Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg, as direct as Aidala was discursive, urged jurors to give attention to Weinstein’s accusers and their days of grueling testimony.
“This was not a ‘courting game,’ as Mr. Aidala wants you to believe. This was not a ‘transaction,’” she instructed jurors. “This was never about ‘fooling around.’ It was about rape.”
The bulk-female jury is anticipated to start out deliberations sooner or later Wednesday, inheriting a case that was seen as a #MeToo watershed when Weinstein was convicted 5 years in the past. It ended up being retried, and reshaped, as a result of an appeals courtroom overturned the 2020 verdict.
Weinstein, the previous Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast, has pleaded not responsible to raping a girl in 2013 and forcing oral intercourse on two others, individually, in 2006.
Aidala argued that all the things that occurred between the ex-producer and his accusers was a consensual, if “transactional,” exchange of favors. The attorney accused prosecutors of “trying to police the bedroom” and zeroing in on the person seen as ”the poster boy, the unique sinner, for the #MeToo motion.”
“They tried to do it five years ago, and now there’s a redo, and they’re trying to do it again,” he instructed jurors. His hours-long summation touched on issues from the acclaimed, Weinstein-co-produced 1994 movie “Pulp Fiction” to his personal marriage and his grandmother’s Italian gravy, at instances taking part in for — and getting — laughs from jurors and Weinstein.
Aidala depicted the previous studio boss as a self-made New Yorker, whereas portray Weinstein’s accusers as troubled and canny “women with broken dreams” who plied him for film alternatives and different perks, stored partaking with him for years after which turned on him to money in on his #MeToo undoing. All three obtained compensation by authorized processes separate from the prison trial.
Blumberg countered that Weinstein interpreted a sexual “no” as a cue to “push a little bit more, and if they still say no, just take it anyway.”
She argued that his accusers stayed in pleasant contact with Weinstein as a result of they have been attempting to work in leisure, they usually feared their careers could be squashed in the event that they crossed him.
“He chose people who he thought would be the perfect victims, who he could rape and keep silent,” the prosecutor stated. “He underestimated them.”
Weinstein had a decades-long run as one of many film business’s most influential folks. In 2017, allegations of sexual assault and harassment tanked his profession and catalyzed the #MeToo motion, which seeks accountability for sexual misconduct.
He was subsequently convicted of intercourse crimes and sentenced to jail in New York and California. His California enchantment hasn’t been determined.
Because the New York retrial opened April 23, prosecutors have introduced in additional than two dozen witnesses. The prosecution centered on Weinstein’s three accusers, who every confronted days of questions.
In typically graphic and typically tearful testimony, the ladies stated the Oscar-winning producer used his showbiz stature as a hook to prey on them.
Jessica Mann, who accused Weinstein of rape, was a hairstylist hoping to make it as an actor when she met him. The sexual assault accusers additionally have been attempting to construct careers in leisure: Miriam Haley was a manufacturing assistant and producer, and Kaja Sokola was a teenage mannequin who wished to get into performing.
Prosecutors added Sokola’s allegations to the case for the retrial. However another accusers from the primary trial weren’t a part of the second. The appeals courtroom stated it was prejudicial to incorporate their accusations, which by no means resulted in prices.
Weinstein, 73, determined to not testify. His attorneys introduced just a few witnesses to solid doubts on sure features of the accusers’ accounts. However Weinstein’s protection additionally relied closely on questioning prosecution witnesses — even shocking Sokola together with her personal personal journal — to attempt to undermine their credibility.
The Related Press usually doesn’t determine folks with out their permission if they are saying they’ve been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.
