Weinstein criminal case may be crumbling, say experts
NEW YORK: On the eve of Harvey Weinstein’s pivotal pretrial hearing, the New York criminal case against the mogul looks to be on much shakier ground than in the court of public opinion, legal experts say.
“This is the prosecutor’s worstcase scenario,” figured criminal defence attorney Mark Geragos, citing a series of setbacks in recent weeks in which Weinstein lawyer Ben Brafman undermined the credibility of the New York police department, the grand jury process, and the three women who accused the disgraced producer of rape and sexual assault.
The prosecution suffered its biggest blow in October when Judge James Burke tossed a count involving allegations made by Lucia Evans, one of the original accusers in Ronan Farrow’s New Yorker exposé, who said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004. Evans’ grand jury testimony was thrown out because an NYPD detective failed to pass along information to prosecutors that contradicted the former actress’ account.
In a previous motion, Brafman claimed that Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon was given information that would contradict Evans’ testimony, and “it was the prosecutor who unethically withheld this information from the Grand Jury and it is they who are now lying to the Court.”
Perhaps most controversial, Brafman also presented a series of emails to Weinstein from accuser Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi, who wrote endearments like “Miss you too,” “Lots of Love” and “xxxxx” in the years after a 2006 encounter in New York in which she says she was sexually assaulted by the producer.
In October 2017, Haleyi made one of the most salacious accusations against Weinstein when she said during a press conference, with attorney Gloria Allred at her side, that the Oscar winner pulled out her tampon and orally forced himself on her.
“Credibility and reliability of the government’s witnesses is obviously an essential consideration for any good prosecutor,” says Greenberg Traurig’s Mathew S. Rosengart, himself a former prosecutor. “This was particularly true in this matter because Brafman is masterful at picking apart witnesses and creating reasonable doubt based upon law enforcement or other errors. He did that in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case against this very same DA’s office.”
Now Burke is expected to decide on the next step in the case against Weinstein, 66. He is facing five counts of rape and sexual assault.