Harvey Weinstein’s accusers are said to have ‘bragged’ about having sex with him and one even wanted to introduce him to their mother, the movie mogul’s lawyers said in court Tuesday.
Damon Cheronis, one of the disgraced film producer’s attorneys, said his team plan to use the ‘devastating’ emails during opening statements before the jury. They would show that Weinstein’s accusers were actually in a ‘loving relationship’ with him and not the violent abuse they claimed, he said.
One accuser even gave Weinstein her new phone number and wanted to introduce her to her mother after he allegedly raped her, Cheronis told the court.
Weinstein is accused of sexually assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping another woman in 2013. Prosecutors are due to outline the case against him Wednesday. Weinstein has said that any sexual encounters he has had have been consensual.
He arrived at court Tuesday morning ahead of opening statements leaning on his walker. The former Hollywood producer, who is still recovering from back surgery which he underwent late last year, wore a new winter coat after appearing in a $1450 Belstaff brown leather jacket on Friday.
At New York’s Supreme Court the Manhattan District Attorney’s office sought to stop Weinstein’s lawyers from referring to the emails during their opening remarks.
Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzi argued that the court would later decide if the messages should be admitted into evidence and that Cheronis should wait until then.
Harvey Weinstein arrives at court Tuesday morning ahead of opening statement in his rape and sexual assault trial following two weeks of jury selection. The former Hollywood producer, who is still recovering from back surgery which he underwent late last year, arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan leaning on his walker. Damon Cheronis is pictured far right
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting two women in New York, and faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault. He said that any sexual encounters he has had have been consensual
Cheronis accused Illuzi of trying to ‘control the flow of evidence’ and attempting to ‘obstruct the truth’.
He said that the defense had ‘dozens and dozens and dozens and dozens’ of emails between Weinstein and his accusers.
Cheronis said: ‘These emails cannot be more relevant and probative because they are statements from the cooperating witnesses who are going to say they were involved in a relationship with Mr Weinstein that was based on fear that included violent sexual assault.
‘We plan to counter this with their own words which describe loving relationships with somebody that they care about both before and after these alleged sexual assaults’.
Cheronis said that the emails will show that the accusers who claim Weinstein sexually assaulted them ‘also bragged about being involved in sexual relationships with him’.
The women who claim he ‘forced them to do things’ also ‘bragged about those things they claimed he forced them to do’.
Cheronis said: ‘The complaining witnesses who are going to come out in this court years later and try to make this relationship look forced had a much different view of the relationship in 2013 and 2006’.
Judge James Burke ruled that Weinstein’s lawyers could refer to the emails but could not use the originals during the PowerPoint presentation they planned for their opening.
Weinstein’s lawyers have referred to emails from a number of women in previous filings to the court.
They appear to form the core of his defense that all sexual encounters were consensual.
One of them, who was referred to as CW-4, or cooperating witness four, messaged him saying ‘I have been thinking about you too’ the day after he supposed assaulted her in 2010.
A few months later the woman said she would ‘love to’ got the opera with Weinstein and exchanged flirty messages when he was on a boat.
A previous filing by the defense included emails from the woman in the 2013 incident in which she told Weinstein four years after the alleged rape: ‘I love you but hate feeling like a booty call’.
In another message she said: ‘Miss you big guy’’.
Other last minute legal matters included whether emails from PR firm Sitrick and Company – the company has represented Weinstein – could be admitted to the court.
Judge Burke ruled they could.
Illuzi said that during the prosecution opening statement they planned to show the jury photographs of the accusers.
She was seen holding several images of young women including one which looked like a headshot for a model or actress.
Dozens of women including Gwyneth Paltrow have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct since he was outed by the New York Times and the New Yorker in 2017.
Among those who could give evidence at the trial are actresses Charlize Theron and Rosie Perez.
Weinstein will face the challenge of defending himself in the case as he tries to undermine his accusers’ credibility without appearing callous to jurors, according to several legal experts.
The jury had been selected by Friday lunchtime after two weeks of deliberations. It is made up of six white men, one black man, two black women, a Latino woman and two white women.
It took until the final day of selection for any white women – which Weinstein’s accusers mostly are – to be chosen. Six alternates will be chosen. More than 200 people were dismissed as jurors.
If Weinstein’s defense team can persuade the jury that the accusers engaged in consensual sexual activity to gain an edge in the entertainment industry, that could result in an acquittal or hung jury, other experts said.
All 12 jurors must agree in order for prosecutors to secure a conviction.
Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct dating back decades
Donna Rotunno, Weinstein’s lead lawyer, told Reuters last month that his defense team had ‘a slew of witnesses ready to go,’ and that they would offer emails showing that his accusers had maintained friendly relationships with him after the alleged assaults.
Prosecutors intend to counter with a strategy that’s taken hold since the 2018 retrial of comedian Bill Cosby: calling a sex crimes expert as a witness to dispel assumptions about how rape and sexual assault victims behave after an attack.
Bennett Gershman, a former Manhattan prosecutor, said that consent would likely be the heart of Weinstein’s defense. ‘I think he´s going to try to show that these women were trying to ingratiate themselves with this powerful Hollywood mogul, that they were not victims, that they were willing participants in various sexual encounters,’ said Gershman, a former prosecutor who is now a law professor at Pace University.
As many as four additional women are expected to testify for the prosecutors, who are trying to establish a consistent pattern of misconduct, according to court papers.
Eric Tennen, a criminal defense lawyer in Boston who has handled sexual assault cases, said it could be difficult for Weinstein to convince a jury that several women had motive to lie about him. ‘That’s a hard pill to swallow,’ he said.
Experts said the challenge is intensified by the #MeToo movement, in which numerous women have gone public with misconduct allegations against powerful men, increasing potential jurors’ awareness of sexual abuse and making them more likely to believe accusers.
Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct dating back decades, helping to fuel the movement.
One of the two main accusers in the case, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi, has said publicly that Weinstein forced oral sex on her in his Manhattan home in 2006. The other, who has not been identified, was raped by Weinstein in 2013, prosecutors allege.
Daniel Hochheiser, a New York-based criminal defense lawyer who has handled sex crime cases, said the defense might call witnesses who observed the relationship between Weinstein and his accusers to bolster a defense of consent.
‘If there are witnesses who can testify that the behavior of the complainant after the alleged sexual assault was inconsistent with someone who had been assaulted, that could be very powerful,’ he said.
Weinstein’s lawyers will likely try to show inconsistencies in his accusers’ past statements through cross-examination, which experts said could be persuasive evidence for the defense. They will, however, have to be careful not to appear too aggressive.
‘If the defense lawyers are perceived as being too aggressive and challenging, it´s going to make the witnesses more sympathetic,’ said Daniel Medwed, a professor of criminal law at Northeastern University School of Law.
Weinstein wore a new winter coat after appearing in a $1450 Belstaff brown leather jacket on Friday
The jury was selected by Friday lunchtime after two weeks of deliberations. It is made up of six white men, one black man, two black women, a Latino woman and two white women. It took until the final day of selection for any white women – which Weinstein’s accusers mostly are – to be chosen. Six alternates will be chosen. More than 200 people were dismissed as jurors
Weinstein appears to have been watching a movie or TV show on a mini screen in his car ahead of his arrival at court
Weinstein will face the challenge of defending himself in the case as he tries to undermine his accusers’ credibility without appearing callous to jurors, according to several legal experts. All 12 jurors must agree for prosecutors to secure a conviction
Weinstein could also argue the encounters were consensual but with the passage of time the accusers’ perspectives and memories of the event changed, said Tennen.
Weinstein’s lawyers have said in court papers that they intend to call Deborah Davis, a psychologist and professor at the University of Nevada at Reno, to testify about how memories can be distorted. Davis said she was ‘still on tap’ to testify and declined to comment on the case.
Gershman said such testimony has been successful in cases involving alleged sexual abuse of children, who have been shown to be susceptible to false memories.
Weinstein also has a right to testify in his own defense, but that is generally considered risky.
By testifying, Medwed said, Weinstein would open himself to a ‘broad-based character attack’ about his honesty that could backfire.
WHAT HAPPENS NOW? THE CHARGES AGAINST HARVEY WEINSTEIN
Harvey Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting two women in New York.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct dating back decades but he only faces five criminal counts in New York – two counts of rape, one count of criminal sexual act and two counts of predatory sexual assault.
He faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault.
One of the women Weinstein was charged with assaulting, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi, has said that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2006. Prosecutors say Weinstein raped the second woman, who has not been publicly identified, in 2013.
Harvey Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assaulting two women in New York. More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct dating back decades but he only faces five criminal counts
The trial is expected to last for around six weeks.
Los Angeles prosecutors have also charged Weinstein with sexually assaulting two women there on successive nights during Oscar week in 2013.
Lawyers for Weinstein had no immediate comment on the new charges, though he has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Weinstein faces up to 28 years in state prison if he is convicted of the charges filed in LA of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.
His arraignment has not yet been scheduled and prosecutors will recommend $5 million bail. Weinstein is expected to appear in court in California after his trial in New York is finished.
Here is what to expect from the trial:
WHO ARE THE ACCUSERS?
One of the women Weinstein was charged with assaulting, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi, pictured in 2017, has said that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2006
More than 80 women have publicly accused Weinstein, 67, of sexual misconduct, helping to fuel the #MeToo movement over the last two years. The criminal charges against him refer to just three accusers.
Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant on a Weinstein Company television show, has said that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in his Manhattan home in July 2006.
Actress Annabella Sciorra, best known for her role on HBO’s The Sopranos, has said Weinstein raped her in her Manhattan apartment in 1993.
Prosecutors have accused Weinstein of raping another woman in March 2013 in Manhattan. She has not been publicly identified.
Weinstein has said that any sexual encounters he had were consensual.
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
Weinstein is charged with a criminal sexual act in the first degree against Haleyi, and with rape for the 2013 allegation. He is charged with predatory sexual assault over both allegations.
Sciorra’s allegation is too old to be the basis of a separate charge, but is a crucial part of the predatory sexual assault charges, which require prosecutors to establish a pattern of serious sex crimes against multiple women.
Predatory sexual assault is the most serious charge against Weinstein, carrying a maximum sentence of life in prison.
WHO WILL TESTIFY AGAINST WEINSTEIN?
Haleyi, Sciorra and the 2013 accuser are almost certain to testify in a trial that is expected to last up to eight weeks.
Prosecutors may also call three other women to testify about encounters with Weinstein, even though he is not formally charged with crimes against them. Their testimony is intended to bolster the charges by showing that Weinstein had a consistent pattern of behavior.
Prosecutors have also said that they expect to call Barbara Ziv, a professor at Temple University in Pennsylvania, to testify as an expert on the trauma resulting from sexual assault.
WHAT IS WEINSTEIN’S DEFENSE?
While criminal defendants and their lawyers typically avoid revealing their strategy before trial, Weinstein has dropped some hints.
Weinstein’s lead lawyer, Donna Rotunno, told Reuters that Weinstein had a ‘slew of witnesses ready to go.’ She has said the defense would be introducing emails and text messages to prove that Weinstein’s accusers maintained relationships with him after his alleged assaults.
His lawyers have also said they plan to call psychologist Deborah Davis, of the University of Nevada, Reno, to testify as an expert on memory, suggesting that Weinstein may try to call his accusers’ recollections into question.
Harvey Weinstein was pictured smiling as he arrived at a New York court on January 6 as his lawyers and a judge handle the final preparation for his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault
WHAT OTHER LEGAL RISKS DOES WEINSTEIN FACE?
Even if he is acquitted in Manhattan, Weinstein faces separate criminal charges announced on Monday by prosecutors in Los Angeles. Lawyer Rotunno declined immediate comment on those charges.
Weinstein was charged with sexually assaulting two unidentified women in 2013, said Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey. He was charged with raping one woman and sexually assaulting the other.
Lacey said the timing of the charges was unrelated to the New York trial.
But there is some connection between the cases. One of the Los Angeles accusers is expected to testify in the New York case to help prosecutors establish what they say was Weinstein’s pattern of forcing himself on young actresses and women trying to break into Hollywood.
Weinstein is expected to appear in court in California after his New York trial, Lacey said.
The Hollywood mogul stumbled up the stairs as he arrived at a Manhattan courthouse on January 8