Defense rests as film mogul declines to testify at rape trial
NEW YORK — The defense rested its case Tuesday in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial without the disgraced Hollywood mogul taking the witness stand, setting the stage for closing arguments in a landmark #MeToo trial punctuated by graphic testimony from six accusers.
As expected, Weinstein chose not to testify, avoiding the risk of having prosecutors grill him on crossexamination about the vile allegations.
He confirmed the decision after returning to the courtroom from meeting with his lawyers behind closed doors for about a half-hour as speculation swirled that he was pushing to testify.
Asked as he left court if he was thinking of testifying, Weinstein said: “I wanted to.”
Defense lawyer Arthur Aidala added that Weinstein “was ready, willing, able and actually quite anxious to testify and clear his name” but didn’t do so because his lawyers felt prosecutors ”failed miserably“to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt.
Jurors are expected to hear the defense’s closing argument Thursday, followed by the prosecution’s closing Friday.
Jury deliberations are slated to start Tuesday. Court is closed Wednesday and again on Monday for holidays.
Weinstein, 67, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping a different woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
Other accusers were called as witnesses as part of a prosecution effort to show he has used the same tactics to victimize many women over the years.
Weinstein has maintained any sexual encounters were consensual.
The defense case relied on the testimony of three witnesses that Weinstein’s lawyers used to try to cast doubt on the accounts on two of the accusers.
Talita Maia, a former roommate of the woman Weinstein is charged with raping, told the jury the woman spoke highly of him and once called him her “spiritual soulmate.”
“She seemed to really like him as a person,” Maia said. “She would only compliment him.”
Another friend of the woman testified Tuesday that she seemed like “her everyday self ” when they met for breakfast with Weinstein just a short time after she alleges he assaulted her.
Thomas Richards, a Hollywood talent agent, testified the woman was friendly toward Weinstein during the breakfast.
The third witness, Mexican model and actress Claudia Salinas, repudiated the testimony of Lauren Marie Young, one of the women called by the prosecution to bolster the allegations of Weinstein’s main accusers.
Asked about Young’s claims that she stood by and did nothing while Weinstein groped her at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013, Salinas responded that it “never happened.”