when in 2020 Harvey Weinstein He was tried, convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison for sexual assault in New York. District Attorney in Los Angeles was seen as something almost symbolic. After the New York court accepted Weinstein’s appeal last August, the criminal process in California gained much more attention and importance. it started this monday with the presentation of opening arguments by the prosecution and defense.
Weinstein, who Pointed by over 90 women ‘The New York Times’ and ‘The New Yorker’ have faced off in California since 2017, when they began exposing their attacks, harassment and abuse with articles that helped start the MeToo movement. 11 charges For lawsuits that occurred in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2013. four of them breachfor four”forced blowjob“, for the single forced penetration and for two sexual assault with an object. If 70-year-old Weinstein is found guilty, Up to 140 years in prisonequivalent to life imprisonment.
Los Angeles lawsuit expected to continue six to eight weeksheaded by Judge Lisa Lench and someone will decide popular jury composed by nine men and three women. Although not much was known about that jury, they were questioned about MeToo during the selection process, and some showed they were nervous about the move. “I believe most women but not all”, for example, one of the selected women assured. Another of those chosen expressed his uncertainty about reaching a conviction in the following situations. no DNA evidence.
by the court town center Los Angeles, where cameras are not allowed, will parade in the coming weeks 50 to 80 witnessesIncluding the five women whose complaints the case was built on. Some of the identities are known, although court documents protect their privacy with the common nickname for ‘Jane Doe’ (numbered 1 to 5) for the victims.
For example, the number 1 ‘Jane Doe’ Ambra BattilanaAn Italian model who accused Weinstein of assaulting her in a Beverly Hills room after a film festival. “He grabbed me by my hair and forced me to do something I didn’t want. Then he dragged me to the bathroom and raped me”, Battilana told the Los Angeles Times in 2017.
‘Jane Doe’ #2 Lauren Young, has already testified at the trial in New York. The model said in 2013, when she was 22, and through an acquaintance she managed to arrange a meeting with the producer and present him with a script, that Weinstein caught her in the bathroom of a Beverly Hills hotel room, and While masturbating she touched her chest and ejaculated.
They too will pass four more women Who will witness the abuses that the producer is subjected to. Second, they’ll help reiterate the strategy of supporting Weinstein’s alleged portrayal as an abuser, with fewer than 16 people the prosecution wants to put on the stand, including Daryl Hannah and Rose McGowan, but also used in New York. cannot be prosecuted in such matters. time out but set a behavioral pattern. In the New York case, however, they failed to convict the producer of “predatory sexual assault” on the two most serious charges he faced.
He will be one of the witnesses Jennifer Siebel Newsom a documentary filmmaker and former actress Married to California Governor Gavin Newsom. In a post he published in 2017, he assured Weinstein that he attacked him between September 2004 and 2005, and although he did not elaborate on that attack, he spoke of his “aggressive advances.” These occurred at a business meeting invitation during an edition of the Toronto festival, and on another occasion, when he went to a so-called business meeting to talk about a possible role at The Peninsula hotel, where the staff “disappeared just in time”.
The producer’s defense, in his case, will attempt to discredit him with an email he sent to Weinstein in 2007, several years after the alleged assault, asking for advice on how to deal with an existing cheating scandal from a publicity standpoint. , the mayor of San Francisco, who was his girlfriend at the time.
Another of the prosecution’s witnesses is a woman and another who accused Weinstein of assault after the premiere of a film in Puerto Rico. Natassia Malthe A Norwegian model who accused Weinstein of raping her in London in 2008. “I closed my eyes and wanted it to be over as soon as possible. He was like a dead person,” Malthe said, describing his attack in the past.
The judge also authorized Mel Gibson to testify, who was told by victim ‘Jane Doe’ that she was told by victim #3 that Weinstein was assaulted on her hand while massaging the actress-director in 2010. Weinstein’s defense attorney, who is Jewish, tried to get the magistrate to dismiss Gibson’s testimony, citing anti-Semitic tirades and publishing a book criticizing a Gibson film by a publisher linked to his client.
Weinstein will appear in court every day, as he did from the neighboring Twin Towers prison this Monday. The judge allowed him to be in the room during the procedure. not in civilian clothes and prison clothes and the producer’s defense attorney, Mark Werksman, said it would also review his client’s request to be allowed to wear dentures.
Despite some such decisions in favor of Weinstein’s defence, the magistrate ruled against others. For example, he refused an attempt to postpone the hearing to avoid publicity about the case’s release. ‘Said’, a maria schrader movie The film stars Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan as Meghan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, the two journalists who first brought to light Weinstein’s abuse.