END OF THE WEIN?
As mogul’s trial goes to jury, public opinion may already be decided
Disgraced Hollywood filmmaker Harvey Weinstein, vilified for two ugly years in the court of public opinion, seeks absolution this week from a Manhattan jury.
But even a verdict of “not guilty” appears unlikely to change the way most people view the Oscar-winning producer after upward of 90 women emerged with allegations of his sexual misconduct.
“Even if Weinstein is acquitted, he has already been tried and convicted in the press before the prosecution began,” said Rebecca Roiphe, New York Law School professor and former Manhattan prosecutor. “No matter the outcome, there is no vindication for Weinstein.”
The panel of seven men and five women is poised to deliberate his fate beginning Tuesday. Weinstein, 67, faces five felony counts: first-degree rape, third-degree rape, criminal sexual act in the first degree and two counts of predatory sexual assault.
The man behind movie classics “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” could spend the rest of his life behind bars if convicted of the last two counts. The jury, before considering those charges, must first find him guilty of raping and sexually assaulting two women at the heart of the case: Jessica Mann and Miriam Haley.
Since jury selection began on Jan. 6, the once-powerful producer has hobbled into Justice James Burke’s 15thfloor courtroom in Manhattan Supreme Court while using a walker. Prosecutors denounced the device as “prop” to win some sympathy for the defendant.
Aside from one male juror admonished for falling asleep, the panel appeared laser-focused while dutifully taking notes throughout the fourweek trial. None even blinked when shown naked photos of the defendant earlier this month.
Weinstein rejected the chance to testify in his own defense following a 30-minute conference with his attorneys, limiting his remarks throughout the trial to oneliners for reporters as he exited the courthouse each afternoon.
The six women to testify against Weinstein in a sex crimes trial seen by some as a referendum on the #MeToo movement comprise a fraction of the women to levy accusations against the Tinseltown titan since October 2017 — when The New York Times and The New Yorker published exposés of his alleged sexual misdeeds.
Weinstein’s legal team sought to undermine his accusers’ credibility while painting him as the victim.
“There was so much political pressure to charge Weinstein that it is reasonable for his attorneys to argue that the DA would not have pursued the case if it were a different defendant,” said Roiphe. “That said, sometimes prosecutors do charge aggressively, knowing it will be a hard case to win, in order to send a message.”
Jurors heard from Emmywinning actress Annabella Sciorra of “The Sopranos,” who became the first woman to accuse the fallen movie mogul of rape before a jury. She appeared as a witness to show a pattern of predatory behavior by Weinstein.
In painstakingly graphic detail, the Brooklyn-bred actress alleged that Weinstein brutally raped her in the bedroom of her Gramercy Park apartment after forcing his way inside during the winter
of 1993-94.
“[I was] punching him, kicking him, just trying to get him away from me and he took my hands and put them over my head,” Sciorra testified through tears. “And he got on top of me and he raped me.”
Jurors would hear similar narratives in the weeks to come: Weinstein’s accusers describing how the Hollywood heavyweight lured them into his orbit with promises of movie roles or highflying positions in the entertainment industry.
After the alleged assaults, they said he threatened retribution — promising to derail their careers if they ever spoke up.
On Jan. 27, Haley took the stand and explicitly described how Weinstein sexually assaulted her in his SoHo loft in 2006 and pressured her into unwanted sex two weeks later in a Tribeca hotel room.
Four days later, Mann testified that Weinstein had raped her twice in 2013 — first in a Manhattan hotel, and again in a Beverly Hills hotel.
Mann’s testimony, which spanned approximately 16 hours over three days, detailed her complex and volatile relationship with Weinstein. The shifting nuances of their friendship subjected her to a ruthless crossexamination by defense attorney Donna Rotunno.
“I know the history of my relationship,” Mann told jurors. “I own my behavior.”
Former cocktail waitresses Tarale Wulff and Dawn Dunning (left) took the stand to offer accounts that mirrored one another in descriptions of Weinstein’s grooming techniques — yet differed greatly in their severity.
Wulff testified that he pulled her from the floor at Cipriani’s SoHo and forced her to watch him masturbate on an unused terrace at the restaurant. She said that he later lured her to his SoHo loft and raped her in the summer of 2005.
Dunning said the largerthan-life producer forcefully groped her in a makeshift hotel room office in the spring of 2004. Weeks later, she alleged that he offered her three film roles to have a threesome with his assistant — telling Dunning it was how stars Salma Hayek and Charlize Theron found success in their careers.
Lauren Young, whose accusations make up part of the charges Weinstein faces in his Los Angeles case, alleged that she was coaxed to the “Reservoir Dogs” producer’s Beverly Hills hotel room in February 2013 by Mexican model Claudia Salinas, who would trap her in a bathroom where the producer proceeded to sexually assault her.
Weinstein’s defense attorneys called Salinas to rebut Young’s testimony, and the witness denied the incident in its entirety. The disparate tales told to the jury only point out the importance of witness credibility, said Roiphe.
“Rape is a hard crime to prove because it almost always occurs in private, without witnesses,” the lawyer explained. “Physical evidence or testimony by law enforcement witnesses who interviewed the victim immediately after the assault help prosecutors prove many rape cases.
“But, where, as in the Weinstein case, no such evidence exists, it comes down to the credibility of the accuser.”