Updated 4th February 2020
And with the jury got to see for them self his “deformed” body:
To verify Mann’s description of his body as “deformed’ with ‘extreme scarring’ and no testicles, with her revealed that at first she thought he was intersex.
Photos of Harvey Weinstein’s naked body were passed around to stony-faced jurors at the end of Tuesday’s court session at his rape trial, leading some to laugh.
With it indeed strange that his “deformed” body had not been mentioned by other accusers as yet apart from his bulk making him impossible to remove, with Mann claiming that on one of the occassions he had raped her he had needed to inject his penis with an erection-inducing drug.
And his predilection for threesomes was shown again with Italian actress Emanuela Postacchini taking to the witness stand to corroborate Mann’s claim that of an attempted threesome, with it seeming his part in being more the voyeur and orchestrator ordering the them to have sex, which had resulted in Mann panicking after Weinstein had told Postacchini “I want you to go down on her”, with Mann stating that “I don’t want her to do that” resulting in Mann fleeing the bathroom and braking down crying in fetal position on the ground with an outraged Weinstein barking “What’s she doing?”, and with Postacchini—who said she had one other sexual encounter with Weinstein once before the failed threesome in which he had not forced her but which she wanted to “forget”—stating she had felt “tricked” as she had been told via email to wait for him in a bar from which he picked her up and took her to his suite at a hotel, saying: “I did not have any idea that there would be a woman in the room.”. But wishing to keep on good terms with “one of the most powerful men in Hollywood” she sent him an email back a few days later in which she gushed “I’m so THANKFUL to you especially for believing in me”, signing off with “All my best. Love Emanuela.”.
Updated 5th February 2020
And with the last accuser up to testify today:
A Model said Harvey Weinstein trapped her in a hotel bathroom and masturbated while groping her breast (buzzfeednews.com).
With Lauren Marie Young telling how Weinstein had lured her through use of another woman she had met, Claudia Salinas, with the pretext that he wanted to meet her to discuss a script she was working on and had then lured them both to his hotel suite under the pretense that he needed to get ready to accept an award for Quentin Tarantino. Once inside she had seemingly followed Weinstein into the bathroom at which point Salinas had closed the door behind her and Weinstein turned on the shower and began to undress while blocking her from leaving.
During cross-examination, Weinstein’s lawyer Damon Cheronis focussed minutely on what happened inside the bathroom, asking Young how “a big fat man” could pull a “ninja move” and take his clothes off as fast as she’d suggested.
With Young replying that she was “in shock and laughed nervously” and that she was really worried and scared that he was going to hurt her, while Weinstein kept saying “we’re just talking, we’re just going to talk” and with her turning after backing away towards the sink because she did not want to look at his naked body, seemingly to no avail as she confirmed the bodily deformities of which Mann had told.
“I remember his body was hairy, with rolls, moles,” she said. ”He had a disgusting-looking penis, like he had been cut, not a normal-looking scar from circumcision … I didn’t notice balls, just a penis.”
And began to cry on the stand as she told of how he had turned her around, pulled down her dress and groped her as he masturbated.
“He was saying, ‘How am I going to know if you can act? … This is what all the actresses do,’” she said, adding that she repeatedly told him no and that she was not interested. She said that she could not stop him because her arms were pinned inside the sleeves of her dress, which he had partially removed. “He kept grabbing at my breast and squinting at me. He continued to masturbate and ejaculated onto a towel.”
And with prosecutors informing earlier that Young recently found the dress she was wearing the night of the alleged assault, which had been turned over to the Los Angeles district attorney’s office and may be tested for Weinstein’s DNA in relation to the charges. On Weinstein’s attorney’s request the dress was presented in court with Weinstein’s lawyer Damon Cheronis holding up the white lace dress and repeatedly asking Young how Weinstein could have unbuttoned it, pulled it down to expose her, and pin her arms by her side.
Updated 7th February 2020
After prosecutors rested their case Thursday morning it’s time for the defense to bring on their witnesses:
Harvey Weinstein’s first witness said ‘The dogpile’ of women saying the producer allegedly sexual assaulted them was ‘hideous’ (buzzfeednews.com).
Paul Feldsher, a New York–based film producer, was called to tell the jury about how Sciorra allegedly told him about a consensual encounter she had with Weinstein. During his testimony on Thursday, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon used Feldsher’s text messages to show that he and Weinstein were in frequent contact after allegations against the producer were made public in 2017.
With the prosecutor reading out text messages from Feldsher to Weinstein alleging that the “dogpile” of women “recalling repressed memories” was “hideous” and assuring him that “until you are proven legally guilty, I will continue to be that politically incorrect person who defends you.” With Feldsher, perhaps somewhat embarrassed by the somewhat sycophantic sounding messages and the likely astounded expressions of some regards how far up he’d seemingly managed to get his tongue, voicing that “I had no idea that my text messages would end up in court”.
Feldsher said in court that Annabella Sciorra—who testified earlier this month that Weinstein raped her—had told him that she “did a crazy thing with Harvey” at some point in the early 1990s.
Which he said he took to mean engaging in some “fooling around” with Weinstein, saying that “There was no component of what she said that was shocking or stressful” and seemingly casting aspersions as to Sciorra’s mindset at the time by recalling that she was taking Xanax and drinking alcohol “a lot”, but with other messages to Weinstein the prosecutor read out saying that “I think she’s full of shit” around the same time as he had messaged Sciorra—about whom he had said “We have not been in touch for seven years, but I still care about her”—after she had spoke publicly about her alleged abuse and that he was “sorry about a bunch of stuff” and that he “would love healing and peace, and friend back” with it being that “current events are way too much for text” and reassuringly hoping that she is well.
Illuzzi-Orbon asked Feldsher if he was “just saying what the defendant wanted to hear”—both in his text messages and in the courtroom.
To which he replied “No” and Illuzzi-Orbon presenting a final message from Weinstein to Feldsher that simply read: “I love u.”
Updated 11th February 2020
And taking the stand, Claudia Salinas testified that she did not lure Lauren Marie Young into Weinstein’s bathroom and shut the door:
A model denied luring a woman to Harvey Weinstein’s hotel bathroom, where he allegedly assaulted her (buzzfeednews.com).
“That never happened,” Claudia Salinas said in court Monday. “If I had done that, I would remember that. I never closed a door behind anybody ever.”
Indeed, saying that she had met the pair at the Montage hotel bar but said said she could not recall going to Weinstein’s suite on that occasion.
She also said she had been to Weinstein’s hotel suites on other occasions but did not remember “that particular suite” in which Young said the alleged assault took place.”
And with a Talita Maia testifying that she was present in the other room of a hotel suite when former friend Jessica Mann says that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her without her consent, and that the pair exited soon after with no signs or distress or upset.
Maia and Salinas both testified on Monday after been subpoenaed, and both made it clear that they didn’t want to testify.
And after Mann’s agent—also subpoenaed by the defence—testified that he had breakfast with the Mann and Weinstein the same day and that they appeared to be “friendly”:
Harvey Weinstein’s defence rests without disgraced producer giving evidence (news.sky.com).
The judge is expected to instruct jurors not to view Weinstein’s decision not to testify as a sign of guilt.
With Weinstein saying he had wanted to testify:
Harvey Weinstein wanted to testify. His lawyers stopped him. (nytimes.com).
Meeting with his lawyers for 30 minutes in a private room where he apparently expressed his desire to while they advised him to not risk it.
But ultimately, Mr. Weinstein and his lawyers returned to the courtroom and told the judge that the defense was resting its case, setting the stage for closing arguments on Thursday. Later, as he left court, Mr. Weinstein was asked if he had considered taking the stand. “I wanted to,” he said.
But with nana’s walking frame entering the frame again with regards whether Weinstein was acting frail for the sympathy vote, with, after the jury was excused for the day, the defense asking the judge to prohibit prosecutors from mentioning it in their closing arguments, but with lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi saying that “At times, Mr. Weinstein walked up this aisle without the walker“ and that “The walker has been there as a prop.”
Justice Burke warned prosecutors to “leave the walker out of it.”
Updated 13th February 2020
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer urged the jury to make an ‘unpopular decision’ to acquit him of rape (buzzfeednews.com).
Appealing to the jury to find Weinstein not guilty, [defense attorney Donna Rotunno] acknowledged that she was asking them to make a possibly “unpopular decision.”
“You don’t have to like Mr. Weinstein,” she told the jury. “This is not a popularity contest. We are not here to criminalize morality.”
Updated 14th February 2020
Harvey Weinstein ‘underestimated’ the women he sexually assaulted, a prosecutor said (buzzfeednews.com).
In closing arguments Friday, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the Harvey Weinstein rape case is not only about “power, manipulation, and abuse” but also a “wanton lack of human empathy” where people who aren’t rich or powerful enough don’t matter.
Telling jurors that Weinstein was the “master of his universe” perceiving women standing in line to get into his circle were “merely ants he could step on without consequences”, but that he had “underestimated” these women:
She said he tried to keep them close to make sure that “they wouldn’t walk out of the shadows and call him exactly what he was: an abusive rapist.”
Updated 18th February 2020
Harvey Weinstein trial: Judge warns defense as verdict nears (bbc.co.uk).
The judge in the Harvey Weinstein rape case has warned the lead defence lawyer not to talk to the press, after she penned an opinion piece on Saturday.
Referring to a piece for Newsweek penned by the defense’s Donna Rotunno called on jurors to “do what they know is right&rdquo, with the seven men and five women of the jury then sent away to try and reach a verdict and asking for asking for clarification of legal terms and for plans of the apartment where one of the alleged assaults took place during their deliberations.
Next page: Jurors request to rehear key testimonies involving Annabella Sciorra’s rape allegation but report that they are deadlocked before finding Weinstein guilty of two counts, and sentenced to 23 years in prison.