HE’S JUST LIKE A TINDER USER
Harvey lawyer has new spew as jury stays mum
Harvey Weinstein’s chatty lead counsel believes her high-profile client is no more guilty than any Tinder devotee.
The latest wisecrack by the Oscar winner’s attorney Donna Rotunno was made public Thursday before the jury completed its third day of deliberations without reaching a verdict in the high-stakes trial of the Hollywood movie mogul. The panel of seven men and five women were due back Friday morning in Manhattan Supreme Court.
The odds of a day-four verdict appeared remote after Justice James Burke said Friday’s deliberations will wrap up at 3 p.m.
The new Rotunno quotes from an interview with “60 Minutes Australia” caused a kerfuffle in Weinstein’s rape and sexual abuse case, coming two days after Burke imposed a gag order on the lawyer.
“When you go home with someone after swiping right, act as if you have no idea what you may be consenting to, [it] seems ridiculous,” said Rotunno during the interview. At another point, she describes her client as no fan of the Ten Commandments — but not a lawbreaker.
“A sin is cheating on your wife,” says Rotunno. “Is Harvey guilty of committing sins? Sure. That doesn’t make you a criminal.”
Burke was ordered to stop speaking with the media following an op-ed piece that appeared to address jurors in the Weinstein case just before deliberations began Tuesday. A Weinstein spokesman said the remarks by Rotunno were made before the gag order.
Weinstein, 67, joined his defense team as they waited in vain for the jury to reach a verdict in his long-anticipated trial. Deliberations resumed Thursday at 9:30 a.m., and wrapped up about seven hours later with a jury note advising, “We are done judge for today.”
Burke cracked a smile as the audience broke up in laughter before he dismissed the jury.
Weinstein is charged with the 2013 rape of an aspiring actress in a Manhattan hotel room, along with forcibly performing oral sex on a second woman at his Soho apartment in 2006. Weinstein, if convicted on the top count of predatory sexual assault, faces life in prison.
Just before leaving, the jurors asked for a readback of testimony under crossexamination by actress Annabella Sciorra. The panel also requested a list of the people who Sciorra spoke with about her alleged rape at the hands of Weinstein in the winter of 199394.
Sciorra was one of four women who testified about Weinstein’s alleged sexual abuse as prosecutors laid out the defendant’s alleged prior bad acts in efforts to show a pattern of predatory behavior.
In tearful testimony last month, Sciorra recounted in graphic detail how Weinstein allegedly burst into her apartment uninvited and raped her after the two had dinner earlier in the evening.