Harvey Weinstein thought he was ‘the king’ and showed ‘wanton disregard’ for his accusers
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers offered a bizarre last-minute defence of their client, before the jury retired to consider its verdict in the disgraced movie mogul’s rape trial.
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A prosecutor mimicked Harvey Weinstein in a New York courtroom, saying he thought he was “the king” and his female accusers “don’t get to complain when they get stepped on, spit on, demoralised and, yes, raped and abused by me”.
In her closing statement to the jury in Weinstein’s rape trial, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said the fallen Hollywood mogul considered himself a bigshot who could get away with treating aspiring actresses like “complete disposables”.
“The universe is run by me and they don’t get to complain when they get stepped on, spit on, demoralised and, yes, raped and abused by me - the king,” Ms Illuzzi-Orbon said as she pretended to be Weinstein.
Using a TV monitor next to the jury box, the prosecutors displayed photos of “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra and five other accusers who also testified on a TV monitor next to the jury box.
Ms Illuzzi-Orbon told jurors that aside from the more successful Sciorra, the others were “complete disposables. They were never going to be in his world.”
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Ms Illuzzi-Orbon also showed a side-by-side comparison of Sciorra’s testimony about confronting Weinstein in the mid-1990s after he allegedly raped her and similar testimony by his rape accuser about how the mogul reacted when she told him she had a boyfriend in 2013.
“His eyes went black and I thought he was going to hit me right there,” Sciorra testified.
With the click of a button, the rape accuser’s testimony popped up: “His eyes changed and he was not there. They were very black and he ripped me up.”
At times, Weinstein sat back in his chair staring ahead at a screen in front of the defence table that mirrored what was being shown to the seven men and five women on the jury during the three-hour summation.
Ms Illuzzi-Orbon also suggested Ms Sciorra’s former co-stars Robert De Niro and Sylvester Stallone couldn’t have helped her fend off Weinstein because the on-screen tough guys are really “just actors”, New York Post reported.
“You guys know that Sylvester Stallone is not really Rambo, right? And Robert De Niro is not really the Godfather. They’re just actors like [Sciorra] is,” she said.
She was referencing how Weinstein’s defense attorneys pressed Sciorra on why she didn’t seek help from De Niro or Stallone after Weinstein allegedly knocked on her hotel room door in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil and a videocassette.
The closing arguments came a day after the defence offered an epic, hours-long closing argument painting the prosecution’s case as a “sinister tale” absent proof needed to convict Weinstein.
Prosecutors created an “alternate universe” that “strips adult women of common sense, autonomy, and responsibility. … Regret does not exist in this world, only regret renamed as rape,” Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno argued.
Ms Illuzzi-Orbon countered by focusing on allegations by Mimi Haleyi that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in his Soho apartment in 2006.
“When an adult goes to another adult’s home, should they expect that they have to engage in sex?” the prosecutor asked. “By going to Harvey Weinstein’s home, did she deserve what she got?”
She added: “There are no blurred lines here. This is a crime and a wanton disregard of other people.”
The jury was sent home for the day, with deliberations set to begin Tuesday.
Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on Haleyi in 2006. He has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Other accusers including Sciorra testified as part of a prosecution effort to show he used the same tactics to victimise many women over the years.
Ms Illuzzi-Orbon said that in October 2017, Weinstein replied to an email from a publicist giving him a heads up that Sciorra was about to go public in a Ronan Farrow story by writing: “Annabella did cop land.”
Instructing his publicist on how to respond to the article, Weinstein wrote: “this was consensual or deny it.” “I submit to you that was a confession,” Ms Illuzzi-Orbon told jurors over the defence’s denied objection.
WEINSTEIN NOT A RAPIST, JUST A SEX ADDICT ‘LIKE TIGER’
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer earlier made an astonishing comparison between her disgraced movie mogul client and “sex addict” star golfer Tiger Woods, saying it was not the same thing as “being a rapist”.
“Tiger Woods is a sex addict. You don’t see him in a criminal courtroom,” Weinstein’s lead lawyer Donna Rotunno told the Manhattan Supreme Court jury who will decide his fate on rape charges.
“Being a sex addict and being a rapist are two different things.”
In 2010, Woods checked into a sex addiction rehabilitation clinic following a notorious sex scandal that led to the end of his marriage with Elin Nordegren.
Ms Rotunno made the jaw-dropping reference to Woods after spending hours attempting to discredit Weinstein’s accusers as the #MeToo-era trial moves one step closer to a verdict.
Weinstein, 67, faces two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of rape and one count of a criminal sex act stemming from the allegations of one-time aspiring actress Jessica Mann, former Project Runway production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi and Sciorra.
The jury is set to begin deliberations in the case next week.
Ms Rotunno suggested Weinstein was a victim of the #MeToo movement and should be cleared of all rape and predatory sexual assault charges against him as his trial reaches its conclusion.
Jurors in the Manhattan trial were urged to be “unpopular” by Ms Rotunno and acquit the ex-Hollywood titan of the charges, which he denies.
“He was innocent when he walked through the door. He was innocent when witnesses started to take the stand. He is innocent as he sits here right now,” Ms Rotunno said in her defence closing remarks.
“From an overzealous media, from an overzealous prosecution, you are being asked to make an unpopular decision. Never let your emotion cloud your intellect. Use your New York City common sense. It will guide you to the right answer.”
Ms Rotunno suggested Sciorra – whose allegations are too old to be considered by the court – only alleged sexual assault against Weinstein in a bid to revive her career.
“She becomes relevant and she becomes a star,” Ms Rotunno said of Sciorra.
“She has new agents. And now she’s the darling of the movement.”
Ms Rotunno also challenged the claims of Mann and Haleyi, referring to affectionate emails they sent the producer after the alleged assaults.
She argued that the women had willingly engaged in sex with Weinstein because they thought he would help their careers, and accused the prosecutors of using the women in a fervent effort to imprison Weinstein.
Ms Rotunno argued that prosecutors had to invent a damning story about Weinstein because they don’t have the evidence to prove the charges.
“The irony is that they are the producers and they are writing the script,” Ms Rotunno said, urging the jury to not buy into “the story they spun where women had no free will.”
“In their universe, women are not responsible for the parties they attend, the men they flirt with, the choices they make to further their own careers, the hotel room invitations, the plane tickets they accept, the jobs they ask for help to obtain.”
“The time to do the right thing is now,” Ms Rotunno told the jury.
Weinstein appeared to be in good spirits as he left the courtroom, but would not comment to reporters when asked if he thinks he will be acquitted.
The judge can declare a mistrial unless the seven men and five women of the jury return a unanimous verdict.
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