‘Abusive rapist’ controlled victims, prosecutor argues
In closing arguments Friday, a prosecutor called Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein “an abusive rapist” and “a predator” who used his power to manipulate and assault several women in the movie business, then stayed in touch with them to ensure their silence and compliance.
“He had a surefire insurance policy: The witnesses were standing in line to get into his universe,” Joan Illuzzi, an assistant district attorney, told the jury during her closing at Weinstein’s rape trial.
“The universe is run by me,” she added, adopting Weinstein’s point of view, “therefore they don’t get to complain when the universe is run by me.”
Illuzzi’s summation was a dramatic finale to the trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, which has emerged as a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement.
In her presentation, Illuzzi returned repeatedly to the difference in power between Weinstein — “a giant” in the film industry — and his accusers, who worked as cocktail waitresses or models and were trying to break into the movies.
“It is a complete dichotomy,” she said. “Here is the defendant with everything using and abusing people he knows have nothing.”
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges in the case — including rape, criminal sexual assault and predatory sexual assault — which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Six women testified at trial that he had sexually assaulted them, though he faces charges in connection with only two of them. The others were allowed to testify to establish a pattern of behavior.
On Thursday, his lawyers made their own closing pitch to the jury, claiming that he himself had been the victim of an “overzealous prosecution” and that the six women who took the stand to accuse him of assault and other crimes were not passive victims, but active participants in ongoing and often transactional relationships.
Standing before the jury on Friday, Illuzzi sought to counter that narrative, arguing that Weinstein purposefully maintained ties with his victims to keep them under his control.
“He made sure he had contact with the people he was worried about,” Illuzzi said. “That’s the mark of a predator.”
The indictment rests on the accusations of two women: Miriam Haley, a former reality television show production assistant who testified that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her at his TriBeCa apartment in 2006; and an aspiring actress who claimed he raped her in a Midtown Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
Both women acknowledged during crossexamination that they not only had friendly interactions with Weinstein after their alleged attacks, but later had consensual sex with him.
In the defense’s closing arguments on Thursday, Donna Rotunno, Weinstein’s lead lawyer, said several times that the accusers in the case had chosen to engage in consensual sex with him to advance their careers, and their decisions to visit Weinstein in hotels and at his apartment supported that argument.
Jury deliberations are set to begin Tuesday.