Will Harvey Weinstein get the Cosby treatment? Decades of Alleged Sexual Assault and Harassment

[ThaBurgerPimp]

If, I can be totally honest with you he should beat this. There is no forensic evidence to support the 2 victims claims (neither went to the police, hospital or their own physician). What makes matters worst is that they both continued to contact him and had sex with him after the alleged sexual assault (Hayeli) and rape (Mann). This comes down to a he say/she say case.

If he beats this(somehow) he better be prepared to have round the clock police protection

Damn so Cosby is in jail for nothing for real.

yeah after cosby first case was a mistrial
they rewrote the criminal procedure just so they can convict him the second trial.

Last i heard his appeal process isnt going too well..

and if he still talking about how he won't "show any remorse" in front of the parole board theyll respond with something like"..and we wont show you any either..may your Black ass RO-i mean DIE in prison!!!"

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein Trial: What Happened This Week


After listening to weeks of testimony, the jury in Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial began deliberations this week. For reporters, as well as stakeholders in the case, the waiting began.

By yesterday afternoon, the jury of seven men and five women had not reached a decision.

Mr. Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty in State Supreme Court in Manhattan to five felony counts, including two charges of predatory sexual assault.



Though six women testified at the trial, the charges hinge on allegations made by two women, Jessica Mann and Miriam Haley. In deciding the predatory sexual assault charges, however, the jury was asked to consider the testimony of the actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Mr. Weinstein raped her in the early 1990s. (Her accusation is too old to qualify as a crime under state law.)

Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers say that the encounters between their client and his accusers were consensual, and that the women used him to advance their careers.

I talked to my colleague Jan Ransom, who is covering the trial for The Times, about the recent developments in the courthouse. This is a condensed version of our conversation.

What happened in court this week?

Jurors began deliberating on Tuesday. Soon after, they rang a bell to alert the court that they had a question. The first three days of deliberations continued this way.


At the end of each day, Mr. Weinstein typically responds to reporters’ questions, even if sarcastically, as he shuffles with a walker toward the elevators outside of the courtroom. But since the deliberations began, he has been quiet — opting to just crack a slight smile, keeping moving without a word.

What questions has the jury asked?

The jury has sent seven notes with multiple questions; it wanted, for instance, an explanation of the charges and legal terms such as “consent” and “forcible compulsion.” It also requested to hear the testimony of Annabella Sciorra and Miriam Haley, as well as to review emails and communications related to the women.

Ms. Sciorra was the prosecution’s strongest witness. On Tuesday, the jury asked for an explanation as to why they could not convict on Ms. Sciorra’s allegation and for clarification on the statute of limitations.

It seemed the jury was assessing the credibility of the accounts provided by Ms. Sciorra and Ms. Haley, and trying to determine whether the evidence supports a conviction on the predatory sexual assault charge.

What other news has come out?

The lead prosecutor, Joan Illuzzi, accused Mr. Weinstein’s lead lawyer, Donna Rotunno, of jury tampering after she wrote an op-ed in Newsweek telling the jury to do “the right thing.”

When should we expect a verdict?

Those of us covering the trial have labored over this question, knowing an answer does not exist. It’s all a guessing game that no one can resist.

We can assume what might happen, and when, based on the jury’s questions, but it is hard to know. At the end of the day, only 12 people — the jurors — really know when a verdict will be reached.

 

[theteacher]

So basically,
the jury is deadlock on the serious charges
(whether or not he belongs in prison for life)
meanwhile Cosby got hit quick.
SMH
Even with A and B list actresses testified against this fool.
and the jury still can't make up their minds.
but a black man, they were able to say yes!​

 

[durham]

So basically,
the jury is deadlock on the serious charges
(whether or not he belongs in prison for life)
meanwhile Cosby got hit quick.
SMH
Even with A and B list actresses testified against this fool.
and the jury still can't make up their minds.
but a black man, they were able to say yes!​

Americans just seems to be cool with white men raping women, over decades. Adults, little girls, little boys. This motherfucker may skate on a hung jury

 

[Helico-pterFunk]

Harvey Weinstein is rushed to hospital by ambulance

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty on Monday of raping and sexual assaulting two women. The ambulance he was traveling to prison in was redirected to Bellevue Hospital Center.

www.dailymail.co.uk

Harvey Weinstein rerouted to hospital on way to Rikers Island jail in New York City

An attorney for Weinstein said that he was under observation at Bellevue for high blood pressure and heart palpitations.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein Is Now a Convicted Rapist. What’s Next?
By Victoria Bekiempis
Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse on February 24, 2020. Photo: Seth Wenig/AP/Shutterstock
A Manhattan jury on Monday found Harvey Weinstein guilty of two counts — criminal sexual act in the first degree, and rape in the third degree — following a nearly seven-week trial. Weinstein’s conviction was for two attacks: forcibly performing oral sex on former Project Runway production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his Soho apartment in 2006, and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann at a Midtown East hotel in 2013.
Weinstein, who had been charged with a total of five counts, was found not guilty of three: one count of first-degree rape involving Mann, and two counts of predatory sexual assault. The predatory-sexual-assault counts included Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra’s allegation that Weinstein raped her around late 1993. The verdict means that Weinstein was not convicted of a charge involving Sciorra.
Shortly after the verdict came down, Weinstein was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom. “He just kept repeating, ‘But I’m innocent. I’m innocent. How can this happen in America?,’” said Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala. Weinstein’s lawyers asked for him to get house arrest until sentencing, rather than being held in jail, but the judge ordered him detained. Weinstein was originally supposed to be transported to a Rikers Island infirmary after court, but he was taken to Bellevue Hospital with chest pains, palpitations, and high blood pressure. Lead Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno said early Tuesday that he remains at Bellevue.
Weinstein’s conviction doesn’t mean his legal drama has ended. Vulture spoke with attorneys about what’s next for the fallen producer now that he’s a convicted rapist.

Weinstein still has to be sentenced.
Justice James Burke, who presided over Weinstein’s case, scheduled his sentencing for March 11. The minimum sentence for criminal sexual act in the first degree is five years, and the maximum is 25. For third-degree rape, there is no minimum prison sentence, but the maximum is four years. While there is a minimum for the more serious charge, Burke has the power to determine whether to give a greater sentence. Prior to sentencing, both Weinstein’s lawyers and the prosecutors will submit their arguments for what his sentence should be. Veteran criminal-defense attorney Robert Gottlieb said Weinstein’s team could submit “character letters” in support of him in their bid for a less serious sentence. Weinstein’s victims can also submit statements in writing.
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Probation officials will prepare a “pre-sentence report” for Burke to consider, Gottlieb said. This report will include background information on Weinstein, such as his professional and family life — as well as information regarding what he was convicted on and allegations against him. The report is “really just to assist the judge, along with all the other written submissions, in determining the most appropriate sentence,” Gottlieb said.
Weinstein’s victims in this case might also be able to speak at his sentencing.
Weinstein still has a criminal case in Los Angeles.
One day before jury selection in Weinstein’s Manhattan trial started, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office announced charges of rape and sexual assault against him. The four counts involve two separate women over a two-day period seven years ago. Weinstein was charged with one count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by use of force for allegedly pushing his way into a woman’s hotel room on February 18, 2013, and raping her. Weinstein was charged with one count of sexual battery by restraint for allegedly trapping actress Lauren Young in the bathroom of his hotel suite and groping her breast on February 19 of that year. (Young actually testified at Weinstein’s trial as one of the three witnesses attesting to prior, uncharged “bad acts.”)
Los Angeles prosecutors said on January 6 that they were investigating eight allegations against Weinstein. Three of those accusations were outside the statute of limitations and can’t be pursued, but prosecutors said at the time that they were continuing their investigation into the other three. Weinstein has not yet been arraigned in his California criminal case. A spokesman for the L.A. district attorney said in an email that “Mr. Weinstein would not be brought back to Los Angeles until after he was sentenced.” After Weinstein’s conviction was revealed Monday, Los Angeles prosecutor Paul Thompson said, “We are definitely proceeding.”
Weinstein’s conviction might impact his L.A. case — but not necessarily.
Defense lawyer Julie Rendelman pointed to the fact that one of the women who accused Weinstein of misconduct in New York is part of his Los Angeles case in explaining why there could be a potential impact. “This may give LA a bit more confidence in going forward with their case, particularly regarding that complainant,” Rendelman told Vulture in an email. “Further, it would create the possibility, although highly unlikely, that Weinstein might plead in LA to hope for a lighter sentence, given his conviction in NY.”
Rebecca Roiphe, a New York Law School professor and former assistant district attorney in Manhattan, said that “there’s no way in which his indictment should legally affect the outcome of the case in Los Angeles, because it’s a different set of facts, and different laws, so there’s no direct legal impact … That said, it’s hard to imagine that the conviction, and the press surrounding the conviction, hasn’t affected the impression of the public, and therefore, the preconceptions of the future jurors in Los Angeles.”
Weinstein can appeal his conviction.
Weinstein’s lawyers said they plan to appeal his conviction. Before he is sentenced, his lawyers can also file “post-verdict motions” in an effort to set aside his conviction, and they can also request hearings on potential juror misconduct.
The defense team also said it’s appealing Weinstein’s being held prior to sentencing with a state appeals court called the Appellate Division, First Judicial Department. Murray Richman, who has practiced criminal defense for nearly six decades, said there is a “strong likelihood that bail pending appeal would be granted … because of the nature of the charges, the fact of the man’s age, and the fact of the man’s health conditions, and the man’s likelihood of not running.”
Weinstein’s appeal is a complicated process.
After Weinstein is sentenced, his lawyers have 30 days to file a notice of appeal — basically, a formal heads-up that they are going to fight the outcome — with a state appeals court. Following that notice, they have 120 days to file an “appeal brief” — their fleshed-out argument for appeal — though the appeals court can give them an extension, Richman said.
Weinstein’s lawyers can ask for several things, said defense attorney Rhiya Trivedi. They could ask for the appeals panel to reduce his sentence. They can also ask for the appeals court to kick sentencing back to Burke if they found that his sentence didn’t jibe with sentencing law. Weinstein’s legal team could also ask the appeals court to throw out the conviction and order a new trial. (This basically puts everything back at square one, so it could mean a new trial, or possibly that Weinstein would decide to take a plea.) They could also ask for the indictment against Weinstein to be dismissed outright.
If the outcome isn’t in his favor, Weinstein can try taking his case to a higher state appeals court.
Weinstein still faces civil lawsuits.
While the controversial $25 million settlement that would end many sexual-misconduct lawsuits against him isn’t yet finalized, Weinstein’s conviction wouldn’t prevent this deal from going forward. Under this tentative settlement, $6.2 million would be for 18 accusers who had filed cases in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada, and the rest of this money would be for class-action participants and accusers who have not come forward. Some Weinstein accusers rejected participating in this settlement and are going forward with their own lawsuits; his conviction won’t stand in the way of that litigation. Roiphe also said that the criminal conviction will make it easier for women to sue.
“I don’t think there’s any effect, from the standpoint of proceeding,” said Douglas Wigdor, who represents three women who have civil claims against Weinstein. “You have to go up to where they’re being held in prison. We’ll go wherever he is and take his deposition.”
Weinstein’s conviction and potential imprisonment shouldn’t impact any money he might have to pay accusers, Wigdor added. “I don’t know why prison would affect his money. I assume he has a great deal of money.” Weinstein “actually saves more money” by being in custody and “not out spending it,” Wigdor said.
If lawsuits against Weinstein went to trial, he could attend if he wanted to, but he would not be required to appear in court.

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of third-degree rape, criminal sex act in New York trial

The disgraced mogul was acquitted on three other charges, including predatory sexual assault and rape in the first degree.
By Nick Romano and Joey Nolfi
February 24, 2020 at 12:06 PM EST
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Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul who faced multiple charges of sexual assault in a New York City court, was found guilty on two of five potential counts by a jury on Monday, and will spend the next 16 days in jail while he awaits sentencing.
Weinstein was convicted of a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, based on testimony from Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley and actress Jessica Mann. He was acquitted on two charges of predatory sexual assault — including one based on allegations from Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra — and rape in the first degree. He will be sentenced on March 11, and could serve more than 25 years in prison.
In a statement to the press, Time’s Up president and CEO Tina Tchen said the verdict “marks a new era of justice” for “all survivors of harassment, abuse, and assault at work.” She also praised accusers Haley, Mann, Sciorra, Dawn Dunning, Tarale Wulff, and Lauren Young before stressing her stance in solidarity with all assault survivors.
“The jury’s verdict sends a powerful message to the world of just how much progress has been made since the Weinstein Silence Breakers ignited an unstoppable movement. In two short years, Time’s Up helped pass new laws to help survivors achieve justice, helped thousands of individuals take on harassers and abusers in court, and changed the game when it comes to how matters of safety and equity in the workplace are understood,” Tchen said. “While we celebrate this historic moment, our fight to fix the broken system that has allowed serial abusers like Harvey Weinstein to abuse women in the first place continues. Abusers everywhere and the powerful forces that protect them should be on notice: There’s no going back.”
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The jury officially began deliberations Tuesday, Feb. 18. By Friday, the 12 members (seven men and five women) relayed to the judge that they were deadlocked on the most serious charges against Weinstein, asking permission to be hung on two counts of predatory sexual assault. The judge asked them to keep working until all charges received a unanimous verdict.
SCOTT HEINS/GETTY IMAGES
Weinstein still faces sex crime charges in Los Angeles for allegedly “raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over a two-day period in 2013,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey announced in January.
The former head of The Weinstein Company and the subject of dozens of sexual harassment and assault claims had faced five total counts: two for predatory sexual assault, one for first-degree rape, one for third-degree rape, and one for a criminal sex act. The charges stemmed from claims that the Hollywood producer raped an aspiring actress in a NYC hotel room in 2013, raped Sciorra at her apartment in the mid-’90s, and forcibly performed oral sex on Haley at his own apartment in 2006.

Weinstein maintained that all sexual encounters were consensual and did not testify throughout the trial. However, multiple accusers outside of these three cases took the stand as a strategy by the prosecutors to establish a pattern of behavior Weinstein allegedly used to exert power and dominance over victims.
In what was often emotional testimony, the women detailed instances of how Weinstein allegedly lured them to hotel rooms in New York and Los Angeles under the pretense of discussing their careers before assaulting them. Weinstein’s attorney Donna Rotunno pressed some of the women for certain specifics they could not remember, including exact dates of the alleged assaults, and displayed emails between them and Weinstein in an attempt to illustrate a warm relationship.
In her closing remarks, Rotunno asked the jury members to use their “New York City common sense” when deciding the case and argued that the prosecutors came up with a “sinister tale” in fighting for a conviction. “The irony is that they are the producers and they are writing the script,” Rotunno said. “In their universe, women are not responsible [for their behavior].” Conversely, prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon called Weinstein “an abusive rapist.”
“What is this case about? Is it about the power, manipulation, and abuse — is it merely about the power of abuse? … Or is it that the defendant was the master of his universe and the witnesses here were merely ants that he could step on?” Illuzzi-Orbon said, as reported by Variety. “Or did he feel like he had a surefire insurance policy that the witnesses wanted to get into his universe? They don’t get to complain when they’re stepped on, spit on, demoralized, and then, yes, raped and abused by the defendant.”

 

[playahaitian]

Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra testifies Harvey Weinstein raped her

By Tyler Aquilina
January 23, 2020 at 06:36 PM EST
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Annabella Sciorra took the witness stand in a New York courtroom on Thursday to testify that Harvey Weinstein raped her, becoming the first accuser to testify in Weinstein’s long-awaited sex crimes trial. Sciorra, an actress best known for her role on The Sopranos, described the alleged attack in substantial and graphic detail, saying Weinstein sexually assaulted her in her apartment in late 1993 or early 1994. (Weinstein has denied all allegations of sexual assault against him).
According to The New York Times and other outlets, Sciorra fought back tears as she said Weinstein pushed his way into her apartment after dropping her off there at about 10 p.m. He overpowered her, leading her into a bedroom and forcing her onto the bed, she said.
SPENCER PLATT/GETTY IMAGES; JOHANNES EISELE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
“As I was trying to get him off of me — I was punching him, I was kicking him — and he took my hands and put them over my head… and he got on top of me and he raped me,” Sciorra said. She testified that Weinstein then pulled out and ejaculated on her leg and nightgown, saying, “I have perfect timing.” She said he then performed oral sex on her, saying “This is for you.”






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At that point, Sciorra said, “My body shut down. It was just so disgusting that my body started to shake in a way that was very unusual. I didn’t even really know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something… I woke up, but I’m not sure if I fainted, blacked out or fell asleep.”
She said that she ran into Weinstein at a restaurant several weeks later, where she confronted him about the assault. His response, Sciorra said, was, “This remains between you and I.”
“It was very menacing,” she said. “His eyes went black — I thought he was going to hit me right there.”
Per The New York Times, Sciorra said on the stand that Weinstein continued harassing her after that. In 1997, she was at the Cannes Film Festival to promote the film Cop Land. She said she was awoken at 5 a.m. one morning to find Weinstein outside her hotel room, “in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a video tape in the other.” She recalled that he left after she “pressed all of the call buttons” on the phone and “people came.” Before the rape allegedly took place, she said, Weinstein had sent her “inappropriate” gifts, such as a box of chocolate penises and a package of popcorn and Valium.

Sciorra testified that she did not report the incident to the police because she was “confused” and “afraid,” saying “at the time,” she “didn’t understand that was rape.” “He was someone I knew,” she said. “I felt at the time that rape was something that happened in a back alleyway in a dark place.”
“I did not want to talk about what happened,” Sciorra added. “I disappeared. I began to drink a lot. I began to cut myself.” She finally came forward with her allegations in 2017 as part of The New Yorker‘s exposé on Weinstein.
During cross-examination, Weinstein’s lawyer Donna Rotunno pressed Sciorra on her account, noting that the actress could not recall the exact date of the alleged rape. Rotunno also asked the witness why she did not flee the apartment. “He was too big,” Sciorra answered.
Sciorra said she “pretended it never happened because I wanted to get back to my life… I resumed my life to the best of my ability.”
Under New York law, too much time has passed since Sciorra’s alleged assault for it to be charged as rape. However, the prosecution called the actress to testify to help establish a pattern of behavior. Weinstein is charged with rape and criminal sexual act based on the accounts of two accusers, and could face a life sentence in prison if convicted. He also faces rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Related content:

 

[playahaitian]

Weinstein lawyer: Prosecutors have a ‘tale,’ not a case
By TOM HAYS, JENNIFER PELTZ and MICHAEL R. SISAKFebruary 13, 2020


1 of 6
Harvey Weinstein arrives at court in his rape trial, in New York, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2020. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer told jurors Thursday that prosecutors in the rape case against him were acting like moviemakers, conjuring up a world “where women had no free will.”
“In the alternative universe that prosecutors have created for you, Harvey Weinstein is a monster,” lawyer Donna Rotunno said in her closing argument. But, she said, he’s an innocent man relying on jurors not to be swayed by a “sinister tale.”
Rotunno argued that prosecutors had to come up with a damning story about the once-powerful movie producer because they don’t have the evidence to prove the charges.

“The irony is that they are the producers and they are writing the script,” Rotunno said, urging the jury to not buy into “the story they spun where women had no free will.”
“In their universe, women are not responsible for the parties they attend, the men they flirt with, the choices they make to further their own careers, the hotel room invitations, the plane tickets they accept, the jobs they ask for help to obtain,” or the messages they send, Rotunno said.
Witnesses testified they were seeking a professional relationship with Weinstein, the producer of Oscar-winning movies such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The King’s Speech.” Rotunno dismissed that as an expedient excuse.
“If they label it what it was, we wouldn’t be here,” she told the jury of seven men and five women in a case seen as a watershed for the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct.
“He was the target of a cause and a movement,” Rotunno said, asking jurors to ignore “outside forces” and weigh the facts.
“This is not a popularity contest,” she said.
Weinstein is charged with raping a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on a different woman, Mimi Haleyi, in 2006. Other accusers testified as part of a prosecution effort to show he used the same tactics to victimize many women over the years.
The Associated Press has a policy of not publishing the names of people who allege sexual assault without their consent. It is withholding name of the rape accuser because it isn’t clear if she wishes to be identified publicly.
Weinstein, 67, did not testify. He has maintained any sexual encounters were consensual.
He said he “loved” Rotunno’s closing remarks as he left court Thursday.
“I made ‘The King’s Speech.’ It was the Queen’s speech,” Weinstein quipped.
The jury is scheduled to hear prosecutors’ closing argument Friday. Deliberations are expected to begin next week.
In often emotional testimony, Weinstein’s accusers said he lured them to hotels in New York and Los Angeles on the pretense of promoting their careers and then sexually assaulted them. The defense countered by confronting some accusers with warm emails and other communications with Weinstein that continued for months or even years after the alleged attacks.
The rape accuser wrote to him after the alleged assault to accept party invitations, give him her new phone numbers and even express gratitude. One message read: “I feel so fabulous and beautiful, thank you for everything.”
Another read: “Miss you, big guy.”
“Not words you say to your rapist,” Rotunno told jurors Thursday. She portrayed the accuser as a manipulator who met Weinstein as an aspiring actress, “was going to do anything she needed to do to have the career she wanted to have” and wasn’t forced to have sexual encounters with him.
The woman testified last month that she kept in touch with Weinstein and sent him flattering messages because “his ego was so fragile” and it seemed safer to her “to be perceived as innocent and naive.”
Rotunno also used emails to question the credibility of Haleyi, who said Weinstein sexually assaulted her after getting her a job as a production assistant on TV’s “Project Runway.” His lawyer pointed to a message the next year in which Haleyi asked Weinstein how he was doing and signed off with “lots of love.”
“This is where you need to say, ‘Wait a minute — do I have doubt about the story she’s telling?’ How could you not?” Rotunno asked jurors.
Haleyi, during testimony last month, explained her interactions with Weinstein by saying she no longer feared him after “he basically had taken what he wanted” and “wasn’t pursuing me in that manner” any longer.
As for the other four women who testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted them, Rotunno said their accounts were irrelevant and unpersuasive. She suggested one of those accusers, actress Annabella Sciorra, concocted an allegation to get #MeToo attention and revive her career.
Sciorra, best known for her work in TV’s “The Sopranos,” testified that Weinstein forced his way into her apartment in the 1990s and raped her as she tried to fight him off. Fellow actress and friend Rosie Perez testified that a distraught Sciorra told her about the alleged attack soon after it happened.
Rotunno delivered her closing argument less than a week after she came under fire on social media for telling The New York Times’ podcast “The Daily” she’d never been attacked “because I would never put myself in that position.”
___
On Twitter, follow Tom Hays at twitter.com/aptomhays and Michael Sisak at twitter.com/mikesisak

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein Was an ‘Abusive Rapist’ and Serial ‘Predator,’ Prosecutor Claims in Closing Arguments
By ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, BRENT LANG and GENE MADDAUS

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Harvey Weinstein was a serial rapist who used his status as a Hollywood power broker to prey on women, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi told jurors on Friday.

In her closing argument, Illuzzi called Weinstein “the master of his universe,” and described the six women who have accused him of rape and sexual assault as “ants that he could step on.”

“When Harvey Weinstein met the witnesses, he looked quite different than he does today,” she said. “They were scared. They felt isolated and they were alone.”



Throughout her argument, Illuzzi sought to stitch together the similarities in the women’s accounts. She said that several felt they were “tricked” into entering a hotel room or an apartment where Weinstein proceeded to assault them.

“If you have to trick someone, it’s not consent,” Illuzzi said.






Weinstein faces five counts of rape, predatory sexual assault and criminal sexual acts. He is accused of raping Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress who now works as a hairdresser, at the DoubleTree Hotel in 2013. He is also accused of forcibly performing oral sex on Miriam Haley, a former “Project Runway” production assistant, at his Soho apartment in 2006. The prosecution called four additional witnesses to buttress those claims, including actress Annabella Sciorra, who accused Weinstein of raping her at her apartment in late 1993 or early 1994.

In the defense argument on Thursday, attorney Donna Rotunno argued that Sciorra made the allegation to revive her career. Illuzzi countered that, saying that Sciorra was forced to reveal painful secrets about her addiction and self-harm.

“To have to tell you that she was cutting herself and then dabbing her blood with a tissue and putting it on the wall with gold leaf… do you think that’s a career booster?” Illuzzi asked.

She argued that each of the women had revealed painful secrets in hopes that the jurors would believe their allegations.

“They didn’t come for a beauty contest. They didn’t come for money. They didn’t come for fame. They came to be heard,” she said. “They sacrificed their dignity, their privacy and their peace. All for the prospect that their voices would be enough for justice.”

Illuzzi spent considerable time defending Mann, who testified over the course of three grueling days that Weinstein had raped her on two occasions. Mann conceded that she had also had consensual sexual “role-play” with Weinstein, and had sent him loving emails over the course of several years.

“The question is not whether Jessica Mann made a bad decision,” Illuzzi said. “The question for you is whether or not Jessica is lying. If she’s telling you the truth, she’s the victim of rape.”

Illuzzi argued that Weinstein did not treat Mann like a mistress, and had never sent her gifts, bought her jewelry, or taken her on trips.

“This was not a relationship — this was Jessica Mann as Harvey Weinstein’s rag doll,” she said. But even if it were a loving relationship, she said, that would be irrelevant. “She could have had his name tattooed on her arm. She could have been writing him love notes every single day… It still wouldn’t make a difference. He still wouldn’t be allowed to rape her on March 18, 2013.”






Illuzzi also stressed that the women went to parties and hotel suites because that is how the acting profession works, and not because they were pursuing a romantic relationship with Weinstein.

“These people, all of them, are navigating a very difficult industry,” Illuzzi said. “Their work looks like it’s play — it’s not! It’s work. And it’s work that supports them and their families. Going to parties sounds like its fun. It’s networking every single time.”

On Thursday, Rotunno painted a starkly different portrait of the former mogul. She claimed that Weinstein’s accusers were trying to evade responsibility for their actions and were being dishonest about their relationship with the producer. Rotunno argued that both Mann and Haley had used Weinstein to advance their careers, pointing to the affectionate emails they sent the producer after the alleged assaults.

“What are we doing to women?” she asked. “Women have choices.”

 

[Mo-Better]

Can't wait to see the outrage when Trump pardons this POS.

 

[Helico-pterFunk]

Harvey Weinstein Attorney Has No Suicide Fears, 'Has Everything to Live For'

Harvey Weinstein's attorney isn't worried about a Jeffrey Epstein-like outcome.

www.tmz.com

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein Is Finally Going to Rikers
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein is soon going to Rikers Island, a sprawling New York City jail complex reputed for violence and corruption, following more than one week in a hospital prison unit, a source said.
After a Manhattan jury found Weinstein guilty of rape in the third degree, and criminal sexual act in the first degree, on February 24, he was cuffed and taken into custody. Weinstein was originally supposed to go to an infirmary unit on Rikers pending his March 11 sentencing.
Several hours after his conviction, however, a source saw Weinstein being driven from the 100 Centre Street courthouse in an ambulance. Reps for Weinstein confirmed shortly thereafter that he was taken to Bellevue Hospital due to chest pains, heart palpitations, and high blood pressure.
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Vulture’s source said that Weinstein has since had a “heart stent” put in (basically, a device that keeps coronary arteries open). Doctors have now deemed Weinstein well enough to be transferred to a Rikers infirmary unit. Weinstein’s transfer is expected to take place today.
Weinstein’s health problems have repeatedly come up during his case.
Before he was taken into custody, Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno said, for example, “He has significant medical issues. I have letters from all his doctors, Judge. He’s under the care of five doctors currently. He’s dealing with the remnants of his back operation which was not successful.”
“He’s in need of the walker. He takes a list of different medicines. Judge, he’s currently receiving shots in his eyes so he does not go blind,” she also claimed in her failed bid for house arrest prior to sentencing.

 

[playahaitian]

Weinstein’s ‘Total Lack of Remorse’ Behind Prosecutors Push for Lengthy Jail Sentence
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: JOHANNES EISELE/AFP via Getty Images
Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein “displayed a staggering lack of empathy, treating others with disdain and inhumanity” and “consistently advanced his own sordid desires and fixations over the well-being of others” for decades, Manhattan prosecutors said in advance of his March 11 sentencing.
Their statement was part of a Friday letter to Justice James Burke in which they spell out Weinstein’s alleged past misdeeds, which range from sexual harassment and assault, as well as non-sexual physical abuse and threats, in the hopes of securing a lengthy sentence; some were previously reported, and others strongly echo other accusations.
The acts listed in this letter, prosecutors said, “show a lifetime of abuse towards others, sexual and otherwise” and because of this, “the People will ask the Court to impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, his total lack of remorse for the harm he has caused, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in further criminal conduct.”
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Weinstein, who was found guilty Feb. 24 of third-degree rape and criminal sexual act in the first degree, faces from five to 29 years in prison.
The prosecutors’ 11-page statement includes several notable details, including one alleged 1981 incident at a Manhattan hotel casting, where Weinstein allegedly told an aspiring actress that “everyone calls me Teddy Bear because I’m so big and cuddly and harmless’” before offering a sexual quid-pro-quo. In another incident, Weinstein threatened a Weinstein Company board member by saying “he would send someone to his office to cut off his genitals with gardening shear.” He was also witnessed punching brother Bob Weinstein “so hard that he bled a great deal and was briefly unconscious” at a meeting. The prosecutors also cited Weinstein calling New York writer Rebecca Traister a “cunt” — and then roughing up her then-boyfriend after he intervened — as one of his “bad acts.”
During Weinstein’s sentencing, prosecutors will go into further detail about what they think his sentence should be. He and his lawyers will also have the opportunity to make their own recommendation. The victims Weinstein was convicted of assaulting, former Project Runway production assistant Mimi Haleyi and ex-actress Jessica Mann, will also give the court their statements at his sentencing. It’s unclear whether they will speak, or if their statements will be read.

 

[Helico-pterFunk]

Harvey Weinstein Has at Least One Cellmate at Rikers, Already Injured

Harvey Weinstein's getting the VIP treatment in jail so far, but not in a fun way: he's being kept isolated and under watch 24 hours a day.

www.tmz.com

 

[playahaitian]

​

 

[playahaitian]

Everything to Expect From Harvey Weinstein’s Sentencing
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Harvey Weinstein is scheduled to be sentenced in Manhattan Supreme Court Wednesday morning following his rape and sexual-assault conviction on February 24. A jury found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape and a criminal sexual act in the first degree for attacks on two women, onetime actress Jessica Mann and former Project Runway production assistant Mimi Haleyi. Mann testified that Weinstein raped her at a Midtown East hotel in early 2013; Haleyi said on the witness stand that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in the summer of 2006. Weinstein was found not guilty of three counts — one count of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault. Weinstein was taken into custody right after the verdict came down. He was initially held in Bellevue Hospital’s prison ward owing to chest pain, heart palpitations, and high blood pressure. On March 4, doctors gave Weinstein a heart stent (effectively, a tube that keeps arteries open); the next day, he was transferred to an infirmary ward on Rikers Island. Here, the rundown of everything to know about Weinstein’s upcoming sentencing and what’s next for the movie producer turned convicted rapist.
Is Harvey Weinstein going to prison?
Weinstein faces a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 29. The range is wide because Weinstein was convicted of two different charges that carry different possible sentences. The most serious crime Weinstein was convicted of, a criminal sexual act in the first degree, has a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 25. Third-degree rape does not have a minimum prison sentence, and the maximum time behind bars for this charge is four years. Had Weinstein been convicted of predatory sexual assault, his maximum possible sentence would have been life in prison.

So how is his sentence determined?
Justice James Burke, who presided over this case, has the power to give Weinstein a sentence greater than the five-year minimum. Burke will take several things into account in making his decision. Before sentencing, both Weinstein’s team and prosecutors submit their arguments for what they think his sentence should be. Longtime criminal-defense attorney Robert Gottlieb previously told Vulture that Weinstein’s lawyers could file “character letters” vouching for him in their bid for a less severe sentence. Weinstein’s victims can also submit statements in writing. Probation Department officials will also compile a “pre-sentence report” for the judge. This report will feature background info on Weinstein, including details on his work and family life, information on his crimes, as well as other accusations against him. Gottlieb said this report is “really just to assist the judge, along with all the other written submissions, in determining the most appropriate sentence.”
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How much time do prosecutors want?
In a letter submitted on Friday, March 6, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not recommend a specific prison term. Prosecutors listed numerous instances of alleged past misdeeds, which include sexual harassment and assault, as well as non-sexual physical attacks and threats, over a period of more than 40 years. They said that Weinstein “displayed a staggering lack of empathy, treating others with disdain and inhumanity,” and “consistently advanced his own sordid desires and fixations over the well-being of others.” They said that these alleged acts “show a lifetime of abuse towards others, sexual and otherwise,” and as a result, “the People will ask the Court to impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of defendant’s offenses, his total lack of remorse for the harm he has caused, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in further criminal conduct.”
It’s impossible to predict what Weinstein will get and hard to make apples-to-apples comparison to other cases. One recent conviction for a first-degree criminal sexual act in New York — involving a man who pleaded guilty to sodomizing an 11-year-old girl at knifepoint — resulted in a sentence of ten-to-20 years in prison. Another New York case — which involved not only a conviction for a first-degree criminal sexual act but also for first-degree rape and sexual abuse — resulted in a ten-year sentence. Charges and sentences vary from state to state, but Weinstein already faces more potential prison time than another high-profile convict, Bill Cosby, the disgraced ex-comedian who was sentenced to three-to-ten years in prison after being convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his Pennsylvania home.
What happens at the sentencing?
Prosecutors will make more detailed arguments about what they think Weinstein’s sentence should be. Weinstein’s lawyers as well get the chance to make their own sentencing argument. Weinstein also has the opportunity to address the court if he wants to. Prosecutors said in last week’s letter that Haleyi and Mann would give the court statements during Weinstein’s sentencing. It’s not yet known whether Haleyi and Mann will speak or if their statements will simply be read. After all the legal arguments and statements are made, Burke will hand down Weinstein’s sentence.
What happens after Weinstein’s sentencing?
Weinstein will ultimately be transferred from New York City Department of Correction custody into the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (DOCCS) system. According to DOCCS, Weinstein will initially be taken to a “reception center” before his eventual transfer to another prison. (Per the New York Times, this center is downstate, in Fishkill, while Weinstein’s assigned prison will be upstate.) At the “reception center,” Weinstein will be “required to receive a shower and delousing treatment.” Weinstein, like all male inmates, will be “required to receive a shave and a haircut,” the agency document indicates. And “state-issued clothing, along with personal-care products, are provided to each inmate.” He will have a physical and a dental examination. Weinstein will also get an “inmate rulebook” and watch an “orientation video,” which includes information on “communicable diseases, suicide prevention, and sexual abuse.” Like other inmates, Weinstein will get a pamphlet, The Prevention of Sexual Abuse in Prison; What Inmates Need to Know, and watch a “gender-specific version of the film Ending Sexual Abuse Behind the Walls; An Orientation.” Security personnel will also determine whether Weinstein is at risk from other inmates, according to DOCCS.

 

[Helico-pterFunk]

Weinstein said Jennifer Aniston 'should be killed' over grope claim

Emails exchanged between Weinstein and his team were unsealed on Tuesday, showing his response to the flood of sexual abuse allegations that sparked his downfall in October 2017.

www.dailymail.co.uk

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All the best exclusive & breaking news in the world of celebrity entertainment. We are first, accurate & always bringing you the real story.

theblast.com

Weinstein Appealed to Bezos and Bloomberg for Help, Documents Show (Published 2020)

Unsealed court papers also reveal he wrote “Jen Aniston should be killed.”

www.nytimes.com

 

[playahaitian]

Weinstein Claims He Was ‘Suicidal’ Following Times Report, Court Docs Reveal
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: Peter Foley/Bloomberg via Getty Images
After a bombshell New York Times investigation in October 2017 revealed decades of sexual-misconduct allegations against Harvey Weinstein, he hatched several unsuccessful plans to save himself — from claiming “I’m suicidal” in a draft PR statement to hitting up billionaires for business assistance, newly unsealed Manhattan court papers in his criminal case revealed.
The documents, which might give the deepest look into Weinstein’s post-accusation unraveling to date, also revealed that his brother called him a “sexual predator and abusive person.”
“Three months ago I could never say the following words, nor even think them to myself: I’m an addict. I’m a sex addict. I’m an anger addict. To medicate, I comfort myself with bad food. My mind sees despair. My body has trauma. Vets tell me I have PTSD,” said one of Weinstein’s draft public statements, dated December 21, 2017. “Doctors tell me I’m lucky to be alive … but lucky is not how I feel. I have only despair. I have lost my family. I have daughters that will not talk to me. I have lost my wife. I have lost the respect of my ex-wife and generally almost all of my friends. I have no company. I’m alone.”
“And I will be honest with you: I’m suicidal,” this missive said.
The draft statement was tucked among more than 1,000 pages of case files that were unsealed Monday afternoon. Weinstein, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault on February 24, is scheduled to be sentenced on Wednesday. He faces anywhere from five years to 29 years in a New York State prison.

This statement, which was not released by his PR team, is heavy with self-pity.
“The #MeToo movement is powerful. Hurtful, but deserved. I read what Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Ashley Judd, and so many others have written. While there are two sides to these stories, truthfully, I don’t know how to tell it without being crucified,” the statement said. “There’s a difference between assault and womanizing. There’s a difference between assault and cheating.”
Weinstein lamented that he couldn’t forgive himself, but believed he could help other addicts, comparing his idea for a treatment center to St. Jude, a no-cost cancer hospital for children.
“When I was a boy, there was a TV series with Danny Thomas called Make Room for Daddy. Danny Thomas built a hospital called St. Jude. It’s a place where kids from all around the world go and get care for free,” Weinstein’s statement said. “I thought to myself, Why don’t I build a St. Jude’s for Addicts? For alcoholics. For sex addicts. For those struggling with opioids, drugs, food, etc. Why don’t I build a St. Jude’s run by women?”
“I’ll finance it with my connections and turn it over to the women. They will have the best physicians from all over the world. It will be a place where women can talk, have groups, explain their experiences and talk to men directly,” the statement said. “It wouldn’t be just men having group therapies, but women confronting them, talking to them, understanding why they acted out.”
“I asked some female opioid addicts for a name for this version of St. Jude’s for addicts. One lonely young heroin addict looked up at me. ‘Athena,’ she said. ‘Who?’ ‘Athena, the Goddess of War,’” Weinstein’s missive also said.
The court documents also revealed that he tried mining his rich and powerful connections days after the Times investigation ran.
“Dear Michael, My board is thinking of firing me,” Weinstein wrote to former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg on October 8, 2017. “All I’m asking for is, let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, and allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance. A lot of the allegations are false, and given therapy and counseling, as other people have done, I think I’d be able to get there. I could really use your support or just your honesty if you can’t support me.”
“But if you can, I need you to send a letter to me at my private gmail address … The letter would only go to the board and no one else. We believe what the board is trying to do is not only wrong, but it might be illegal and would destroy the company,” Weinstein also wrote. “If you could write this letter backing me getting the help and time away I need and also stating your opposition to the board firing me, it would help me a lot. With all due respect, I need the letter today if you can — I so appreciate it.”
Weinstein wrote similar emails to Apple CEO Tim Cook, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and other power brokers.
Within a month of the Times story, Weinstein’s notorious anger was also directed toward Jennifer Aniston. An October 31, 2017, exchange between Weinstein and his rep revealed that a reporter was seeking comment on an allegation that he groped Aniston. “Jen Aniston should be killed,” Weinstein said in a reply email. Aniston’s rep vehemently denied that the actress had been groped by Weinstein in an email to Vulture. “I just spoke to Jennifer and confirmed that none of those claims that were stated in the email from the National Enquirer are true. There were no such interactions with Harvey Weinstein,” her rep, Stephen Huvane, said in an email to Vulture. “She was never in a room alone with him. He never touched her in anyway and she never caught him staring at her breast. She never had to reject his advances because he never made any. I hope this is clear,” Huvane said.
The documents also revealed that Weinstein’s brother and former business partner, Bob, wasn’t buying his addiction claims.
“U deserve a lifetime achievement award for the sheer savagery and immorality and inhumanness, for the acts u have perpetrated. Oh I forgot. They were all consensual. Then what are u in rehab for? Sex addiction. Don’t think so,” Bob Weinstein wrote in a November 2, 2017 email. “You wouldn’t have harassment, assault and rape charges u have now received, from 82 women for active consensual sex. U must be being treated for something. I guess sexual predator comes to mind.”
“U have been a sexual predator and abusive person for over fourty [sic] years,” Bob also wrote. “Fuck u Harvey Weinstein. I pray there is a real hell. That’s where u belong. I suppose being you, is its own hell, if u could feel it, but no chance. OJ, didn’t kill Nicole Simpson and u had consensual sex with all those poor victimized women.”

 

[playahaitian]

30 years of harassment. Let's see how this plays out.






http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ne...by-ashley-judd-others-ny-times-expose-1046114

Harvey Weinstein's "Decades of Harassment" Alleged by Ashley Judd and Others in N.Y. Times Expose

Ashley Judd has gone on the record to accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment.

A New York Times expose published on Thursday alleges "decades of sexual harassment" by The Weinstein Co. mogul. Weinstein "has reached at least eight settlements with women" the paper reported, citing two unnamed sources.

"I said no, a lot of ways, a lot of times, and he always came back at me with some new ask," Judd told the Times. "It was all this bargaining, this coercive bargaining."

The explosive investigation paints a toxic if not complicated picture of one of Hollywood's most notorious film executives. It also brings to light many long-standing rumors about his conduct, both in the office and outside.

Harvey Weinstein Cites Jay-Z, NRA in Bizarre Statement After N.Y. Times Exposé


The Times article, bylined by investigative reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, arrives a day after news broke that the paper, along with The New Yorker magazine, were independently pursuing stories about the personal behavior of Weinstein.

Weinstein, 65, hired multiple attorneys and several PR crisis consultants in an effort to combat the story, including celebrity lawyer Lisa Bloom and Charles Harder, who represented Hulk Hogan in its fight with the now defunct website Gawker.

The Times article opens with Judd's account that she had been sexually harassed in a hotel room at the Peninsula Beverly Hills two decades ago. She details that he met her wearing a bathrobe, only to ask the actress, who had arrived to the room after a night shoot filming Kiss the Girls, if she would give him a massage or watch him shower.

By naming him, Judd confirms that a story published in Variety two years ago on this exact date was about Weinstein. That widely circulated article detailed the Peninsula encounter but at the time she declined to name him.

Judd added that it was necessary to come forward now: "Women have been talking about Harvey amongst ourselves for a long time, and it's simply beyond time to have the conversation publicly."

The Times reports that in total, eight women shared stories similar to Judd's, that Weinstein had a pattern of alleged misconduct. He would appear "nearly or fully naked in front of them, requiring them to be present while he bathed or repeatedly asking for a massage or initiating one himself," reports the Times.

Weinstein participated in the interview, offering a statement and reporting that he has elected to take a leave of absence to "deal with this issue head on."

"I appreciate the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past has caused a lot of pain, and I sincerely apologize for it," reads Weinstein's statement. "Though I'm trying to do better, I know I have a long way to go."

Weinstein also added: "I came of age in the 60's and 70's, when all the rules about behavior and workplaces were different. That was the culture then."

He also told the paper he was planning a leave of absence from his company and will be politically active in campaigning against the National Rifle Association.

According to attorney Lisa Bloom, who has reportedly been advising Weinstein over the last year, the mogul is "an old dinosaur learning new ways," who uses "words and behaviors can be perceived as inappropriate, even intimidating."

The investigative piece says that Weinstein has reached the eight settlements after being confronted with allegations of sexual harassment and "unwanted physical contact." Those payments have ranged between $80,000 and $150,000, the paper reports citing sources familiar with those negotiations.

One of the settlements was made with Rose McGowan in 1997 following an incident in a hotel room during the Sundance Film Festival, reports the Times, which added that the $100,000 payment was "not to be construed as an admission" but rather to "avoid litigation and buy peace," according to an official document. Although she declined comment for the story, McGowan has often hinted that she was sexually assaulted by a studio mogul.

On Wednesday, Weinstein responded to THR's report that investigative pieces were forthcoming, he said, "The story sounds so good, I want to buy the movie rights." McGowan later tweeted, "I want to buy the rights." The actress-turned-filmmaker and passionate human rights activist is currently working on a book titled Brave in which she will recount her experiences living in a religious cult and later navigating a successful career in Hollywood. It is believed, and was previously reported by columnist Richard Johnson, that McGowan would detail her experiences with Weinstein in the book. It's currently scheduled for release on Feb. 27 from HarperOne. THR is reaching out for comment from McGowan, who tweeted shortly after the NYT story broke. Though she didn't reference the article, she said this: "Women fight on. And to the men out there, stand up. We need you as allies. #bebrave."

THR has learned that shortly after the story broke, Weinstein was headed to see his wife, Georgina Chapman, at the close of her fashion show in New York, a bridal collection from her Marchesa fashion house. THR has requested comment from Chapman on the allegations against her husband but has not heard back.

 

[Rembrandt Brown]

This was always a stupid ass way of looking at the Cosby situation.

 

[playahaitian]

3 Years Is Exactly What Harvey Weinstein Deserves
By Jen Chaney@chaneyj
The contrast between what Weinstein was doing in 1997, and where he is now, underscores how appropriate his sentence is. Photo: Scott Heins/Getty Images
This morning Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison on charges of third-degree rape and criminal sexual assault for his attacks on three women: Jessica Mann, Mimi Haleyi, and Annabella Sciorra. That was not the maximum sentence that Weinstein — who has allegedly raped or assaulted nearly 80 women during his years as head of Miramax, and later the Weinstein Company — could have received. Guidelines permitted Justice James Burke to go as high as 29 years or as low as five. It would not have been surprising to see Weinstein receive something closer to that minimum. Somehow, anything more seemed like too much to expect, mainly because we’ve been conditioned to not expect much when it comes to holding bad, wealthy white men accountable for truly heinous behavior.
But even with other cases in California still pending, Weinstein, who turns 68 next week, got 23 years, which means that he will most likely die in jail. Stop for a moment. Think about that. The Hollywood producer whose abhorrent behavior galvanized the Me Too movement and became the quintessential example of what it looks like when men abuse their power at women’s expense, will likely spend the rest of his life behind bars. That’s significantly more than Bill Cosby’s three-to-ten-year sentence in 2018 on three counts of felony sexual assault, a less serious charge than the third-degree rape count Weinstein faced.
To put 23 years in perspective, think about where Harvey Weinstein was 23 years ago. On March 11, 1997, Weinstein’s studio had, a month to the day earlier, received 20 Academy Award nominations, more than any other studio in Hollywood. In less than two weeks, on March 24, Weinstein and his colleagues would collect 11 Oscars, buoyed by The English Patient, which won Miramax its first Best Picture statuette. Miramax’s (and Weinstein’s) aggressive lobbying tactics and its ability to spend money on ads and marketing, aided by the fact that it was then owned by Disney, were already becoming legend. “When it comes to pushing films for the Academy Awards,” the New York Times wrote at the time, “nobody in the film industry is more zealous than Miramax.”

Yet at this sentencing today, roughly 23 years later, Weinstein said, “I had no great powers in this industry. Miramax at the height of its fame was a small company … I couldn’t blackball anybody.” A small company, owned by the biggest one imaginable. He was outright lying. This man, who regularly bragged about how much influence he and his “empire” had over the entertainment industry — and about how he advanced the careers of women onscreen and off more than any other filmmaker — knew he was lying.
But that makes total sense, since Harvey Weinstein’s life 23 years ago was a lie, too. While he and his staff were engaging in a full-court press to earn trophies for a glossy, World War II love story, he was regularly targeting women. By 1997, he had already tried to prey upon, among others, three well-known actresses — Gwyneth Paltrow, Rosanna Arquette, and Mira Sorvino — who had starred in his films and managed to slip away before he could engage in physical contact.
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In the same year as those big Oscar wins, Ashley Judd says Weinstein tried to persuade her to watch him shower in a room at the Peninsula Hotel. Judd was able to talk her way out of the room, but, years later, she filed a lawsuit accusing him of defamation, sexual harassment, and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage. The sexual harassment part of her lawsuit was dismissed last year. Dismissed. It’s what women are used to.
At the Sundance Film Festival in 1997, Rose McGowan says Weinstein raped her after inviting her to his hotel suite. McGowan was 23 when it happened, and not long after, reached a settlement with Weinstein and signed an NDA that she broke free from in recent years.
After today, maybe it will feel more reasonable to expect that men with a track record of abusing women will get what they deserve, too.
Asia Argento, as she first relayed to The New Yorker, was also assaulted by Weinstein in 1997 in the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in the French Riviera. She described the event to writer Ronan Farrow as “a horrible trauma.” She has carried that trauma, and her misplaced guilt about not fighting harder to escape him, for 23 years. It’s a long time to replay something in your head and live with the ramifications of it over and over.
When the details about what happened to these women and others first spilled into public view, first in the New York Times and then The New Yorker, Weinstein was finally called out in public for behavior that had been whispered about for years. But even then, it seemed like there might be a limit to how much punishment he would receive. In the months and days leading up to his conviction, Weinstein appeared to be laying the foundation for a comeback. Such a comeback didn’t seem that far out of the realm of possibility. It does today.
After Weinstein was sentenced, his lawyer, Donna Rotunno, called his 23-year sentence “obscene.” “I am overcome with anger at that number,” she said. “I think that number is a cowardly number to give.”
On the contrary, I think it’s just right. Harvey Weinstein will have 23 years — maybe more depending on what happens with his California cases — to think about what he’s done. He’ll have 23 years to remember how much success and influence he had back in 1997 and the immediate years that followed, and how much he lost by sexually preying on women who he believed would be intimidated into doing his bidding. He’ll have 23 years to revisit the things he did and know he can’t change them now. He’ll have 23 years to continue believing that what has happened to him is unfair, which is exactly what Asia Argento, Rose McGowan, and Ashley Judd have been forced to do.
Twenty-three years. It’s what Weinstein deserves. After today, maybe it will feel more reasonable to expect that men with a track record of abusing women will get what they deserve, too.

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein Is in Isolation in Prison
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Harvey Weinstein was put in isolation after being transferred to prison upstate as a “precaution” due to coronavirus concerns at Rikers Island, where he was initially detained following his rape conviction, his lawyer told Vulture.
Word of Weinstein’s isolation comes amid a Niagara Gazette report claiming that he has coronavirus. His lawyers told Vulture that they have not received information indicating he was sick with the virus.
Weinstein was transferred to Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison near Buffalo, several days ago. On February 24, a jury found Weinstein guilty of first-degree criminal sexual act, and third-degree rape. On March 11, Justice James Burke imposed a sentence of 23 years in prison. Before Weinstein was moved upstate, he had bounced between New York City’s Rikers Island jail (which is now dealing with COVID-19) and Bellevue Hospital, where he underwent treatment for heart problems.
Asked for comment, the New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision responded, “The Department cannot comment on an individual’s medical record.”
“However, we can confirm that two of the Department’s approximately 43,000 incarcerated individuals, both at Wende Correctional Facility, have confirmed cases,” the department’s statement said. “With each confirmed case, DOCCS worked with the Department of Health to identify any potentially exposed individuals in order to provide notifications and to stop the spread of the virus.”
State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision officials previously said Weinstein would be at Wende “throughout the classification process” — which effectively just means processing an inmate into the state’s prison system, and then determining the prisoner’s security, medical, and mental health needs. Because there is no “standard timeframe” for this classification process, it’s unclear how long Weinstein will be at Wende. It’s also not clear whether Weinstein will be moved to another lockup, or ultimately just stay at Wende.

New York’s Department of Corrections and Community Supervision recently suspended all visits because of the COVID-19 crisis. As with other inmates impacted by suspended visitation, Weinstein will receive five free stamps per week, two free secure messages via electronic messaging per week, and one free phone call weekly.

 

[playahaitian]

​

 

[playahaitian]

Harvey Weinstein Charged With New Sexual Assault Allegation
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: JASON SZENES/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Harvey Weinstein was charged with another sexual assault count for allegedly attacking a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010, Los Angeles prosecutors said Friday. L.A. prosecutors had previously charged Weinstein in early 2020 for alleged attacks on two women seven years ago.
“We are continuing to build and strengthen our case,” L.A. County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement. “As we gather corroborating evidence, we have reached out to other possible sexual assault victims. If we find new evidence of a previously unreported crime, as we did here, we will investigate and determine whether additional criminal charges should be filed.”
According to prosecutors, this accuser was first interviewed by law enforcement in October 2019 as a potential corroborating witness against Weinstein. Last month, prosecutors said, this woman gave detectives information “confirming that the assault took place within the 10-year-statute of limitation.”
The criminal complaint states that Weinstein “willfully and unlawfully touch[ed] an intimate part of Jane Doe #3, while said person was unlawfully restrained by said defendant(s), Harvey Weinstein, and an accomplice, against the will of said person and for the purpose of sexual arousal, sexual gratification, and sexual abuse.”
Weinstein was convicted on February 24 in Manhattan of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act for attacks on two women. Weinstein, who on March 11 was sentenced to 23 years, is now in a maximum-security state prison near Buffalo.
Los Angeles prosecutors announced charges against him on January 6 — one day before jury selection began in his New York City trial.

He was hit with one count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by use of force for allegedly shoving his way into a woman’s hotel room on February 18, 2013, and then raping her.
He was also charged with one count of sexual battery by restraint for allegedly assaulting actress Lauren Young on February 19, 2013. Young said Weinstein trapped her in his hotel suite’s bathroom and then groped her breast. She was among the three women who testified in Weinstein’s New York trial about prior, uncharged “bad acts.”
Prosecutors in L.A. had previously said that they were exploring eight accusations against Weinstein. Three of those allegations were beyond the statute of limitations and couldn’t be pursued, but prosecutors explained at the time that they were still investigating the other three.
The L.A. County District Attorney’s Office also said in today’s announcement that two potential Weinstein cases were “declined for prosecution because the victims did not want to testify against the defendant in this case.”
One of these allegations involves an actress who told police that Weinstein “sexually assaulted her during a business meeting,” according to an L.A. District Attorney’s Office document. The other allegation that won’t be prosecuted appears to refer to Jessica Mann; Weinstein was convicted of raping the actress at a Midtown East hotel in 2013. When Mann testified, she also claimed that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in Los Angeles. Mann was not named in the L.A. paperwork, but it states that “the victim testified in trial in New York accusing the suspect of criminal sexual misconduct in 2013; the defendant was convicted of sexually assaulting the victim there.”
“On March 31, 2020 she said she does not want to participate in additional testimony in Los Angeles due to the risk that it will re-traumatize her,” the prosecutors’ document states.
If convicted of the California charges, Weinstein faces up to 29 years in prison.
Prosecutors in L.A. said on March 23 that they “initiated its request to New York for the temporary custody of defendant Weinstein … to bring him to Los Angeles County to face rape and sexual-assault charges.”
It’s unclear, however, when Weinstein will be brought to L.A.

 

[playahaitian]

Judge Rejects Controversial $19 Million Weinstein Accuser Settlement

“What is there to make me believe that a person who just met Harvey Weinstein has the same claim as [a woman] who was raped by Harvey Weinstein?”

www.vulture.com

Harvey Weinstein and Class-Action Accusers Agree to $19 Million Settlement
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: TNS via Getty Images
A group of women who sued Harvey Weinstein for alleged sexual misconduct agreed to an $18.875 million settlement with the disgraced producer, his former film company, and several people who had worked there, the women’s lawyers announced Tuesday. The deal, which still needs court approval before going into effect, would also settle the New York State attorney general’s lawsuit against him. Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act on February 24 in his Manhattan criminal case; on March 11, he was sentenced to 23 years in state prison.
The accusers who reached this agreement include Louisette Geiss, Sarah Ann Thomas, Melissa Thompson, Melissa Sagemiller, Nannette May, Katherine Kendall, Caitlin Dulany, Larissa Gomes, and a woman referred to as Jill Doe. This settlement, if approved, wouldn’t only apply to these women. The nearly $19 million would establish a “victims’ fund allowing all women who were abused by Harvey Weinstein under certain circumstances to make claims for damages in a confidential and non-adversarial process,” the women’s lawyers said in a press release.
The state attorney general’s office said that under the deal, “women who had previously signed confidentiality, non-disclosure, or non-disparagement agreements with [The Weinstein Company] or any of the former representatives of the company related to any sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein, will be released from those clauses and free to tell their stories without fear of retribution.”
The agreement doesn’t come without controversy.
Douglas H. Wigdor and Kevin Mintzer, who represent several Weinstein accusers that aren’t participating in the settlement, called the deal a “complete sellout of the Weinstein survivors …”

They said in a statement that under the deal, Weinstein “accepts no responsibility for his actions” and that he “isn’t paying any money toward the settlement despite now having been found guilty in Manhattan criminal court.”
Regardless of the controversy, there are several steps that would have to happen before the settlement is finalized. The agreement still has to be approved by bankruptcy and Manhattan federal courts. If the Manhattan federal-court judge overseeing this case agrees to preliminary approval, other women who might qualify will be notified about the settlement. People will have time to make claims and objections. Eventually, there will be a “fairness hearing” that will determine whether final approval is granted.
The settlement doesn’t bring an end to Weinstein’s many other legal woes, including other civil litigation and his ongoing criminal case in Los Angeles.
Update, July 1: Imran Ansari, one of Weinstein’s attorneys, issued a statement on the agreement, saying, “With closure in sight on one front, Mr. Weinstein remains intently focused on defending himself on all remaining legal matters, including the appeal of his criminal conviction, civil lawsuits, and the charges filed against him in L.A. He continues to pursue all legal recourse available to him and remains steadfast in the defense of those matters.”

 

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One Year Later, What Is Going On With Harvey Weinstein?
By Victoria Bekiempis
Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images
On March 11, 2020, Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in New York state prison for rape and sexual assault. A Manhattan jury had found Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree on February 24, after a nearly seven-week trial. Justice James Burke, who presided over Weinstein’s case, remarked at his sentencing, “I will say that although this is a first conviction, it is not a first offense.” Burke also ruled that Weinstein must register as a sex offender. In the year since Weinstein’s sentencing, there have been a lot of developments in this case and other proceedings against him. The COVID-19 pandemic, of which New York was a global epicenter last spring, has impacted developments in some of these proceedings. Here’s a look at what has happened.
Weinstein has been locked up for more than a year.
Right after the guilty verdict came down on February 24, Weinstein was taken into custody. It was chaotic almost immediately. Around 4:30 that day, a source saw Weinstein being driven away from the downtown Manhattan courthouse in an ambulance. By that evening, Weinstein was taken to Bellevue Hospital for heart palpitations, chest pain, and high blood pressure. On March 4, he received a heart stent — a device that keeps coronary arteries open — and was taken to Rikers Island a day later, a source told Vulture at the time. Weinstein was eventually transferred to Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security state prison near Buffalo, on March 18.
Weinstein got coronavirus.
Several days after Weinstein’s arrival at Wende, reports emerged that he had COVID-19. Info surrounding Weinstein’s diagnosis was hard to pin down at the time. One of his lawyers said that Weinstein was placed in isolation when he got to Wende as a precaution because of COVID-19 concerns at Rikers. But his team didn’t give a direct answer about the diagnosis. The New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision said it “cannot comment on an individual’s medical record,” but confirmed that two Wende inmates did have the virus.
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A court document quietly filed in October provided new intel on Weinstein’s diagnosis. In arguing that Weinstein should be out on bail pending appeal, his lawyers said that in March, “Weinstein tested positive for COVID-19 and was quarantined while in prison for 23 days.” In November, TMZ reported that Weinstein was extremely sick and a suspected COVID-19 case. Weinstein tested negative several days after that report.
Weinstein’s Los Angeles case got way more serious.
The Los Angeles district attorney’s office announced sex-crime charges against Weinstein on January 6, 2020 — one day before his Manhattan trial kicked off. L.A. prosecutors accused him of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another woman in separate incidents over two days in 2013. They charged him with “one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force, and sexual battery by restraint.” In April, L.A. prosecutors hit Weinstein with another count for allegedly attacking a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010. “We are continuing to build and strengthen our case,” said former district attorney Jackie Lacey in announcing the new sexual battery by restraint count.
In October, L.A. prosecutors announced that Weinstein was charged with six more counts — three felony counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation. They involve an incident that took place sometime between September 2004 and September 2005, where Weinstein allegedly raped a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel. The latest counts also involve an incident where Weinstein allegedly raped another woman “on two separate occasions in November 2009 and November 2010 at a hotel in Beverly Hills,” prosecutors said.
Weinstein will be extradited to Los Angeles. Eventually.
Several hours after Weinstein was sentenced on March 11, California prosecutors announced: “The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has begun the process of extraditing defendant Weinstein to California to face the sexual assault charges that were filed in January.” On March 23, they provided an update, saying the office “initiated its request to New York for the temporary custody of defendant Weinstein … to bring him to Los Angeles County to face rape and sexual assault charges.” When they said this, COVID-19 had yet to fully bring New York City and State to a standstill. So at the time, it seemed like Weinstein could possibly be extradited sooner than later. They also said in their late-March statement: “As for any concerns given the coronavirus pandemic, our office expects that each agency responsible for processing, transporting, and housing defendant Weinstein will follow its protocols and public-health guidelines.” The pandemic did wind up delaying Weinstein’s extradition: He’s still at Wende right now. In December, his legal team and prosecutors agreed to delay his extradition hearing until April amid the continuing public-health crisis.
Weinstein is appealing his conviction.
His legal team filed a “notice of appeal” on April 2, 2020. This is basically an official notice that Weinstein’s lawyers will file detailed arguments appealing his conviction. While his attorneys have not yet filed the more extensive paperwork, their statement and prior legal papers give some hints on how they’ll appeal. They’re likely going to bring up how the judge denied their request to move his trial outside of New York City, after they had complained that media coverage would prevent him from an impartial jury and fair trial.
They might also revisit their complaints that Burke allowed to serve on the jury a woman who had authored a novel that involved predatory older men. They claimed that the fact she didn’t disclose this novel on a jury-selection questionnaire was problematic. (The questionnaire didn’t straight up ask about writing novels, but does ask if there’s anything a prospective juror should disclose that wasn’t covered in the questions.) His lawyers have also maintained that there was evidence at trial of continuing consensual relationships between Weinstein and the two women he was convicted of assaulting, which they insist undermines their statements about nonconsensual sex.

Weinstein still faces civil litigation, but a lot of lawsuits seem to be winding down.
In January 2021, a Delaware bankruptcy judge green-lit a settlement of more than $17 million for dozens of women who accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct. Under the settlement agreement, these women would submit claims, and the amount they receive would depend upon the type of abuse allegation. This figure and settlement process remain controversial. The Weinstein Company sought bankruptcy protection in 2018; this settlement is being allocated under its liquidation plan. This liquidation plan, thus the settlement under it, would mean that eligible accusers can’t go forward with legal claims against Weinstein Company officers. That includes women who want to opt out of the deal.
If accusers wanted to pursue civil claims against Weinstein, they would only be entitled to 25 percent of whatever money might have been available to them under this deal, some attorneys opposing this agreement have said. The agreement also only applies to women who accused him of misconduct when he was at The Weinstein Company, between its founding in 2005 until its collapse three years ago. Accusers eligible for the settlement can appeal the plan. Some have said they’ll continue their lawsuits against him. Doug Wigdor and Kevin Mintzer, who have repped several Weinstein accusers in lawsuits, said, “We look forward to continuing to fight on behalf of survivors who seek to hold Harvey Weinstein and his corporate enablers accountable.”

 

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@playahaitian

Harvey Weinstein's Nearly Blind and Lost Teeth, Lawyer Claims at Extradition Hearing

Harvey Weinstein's health is too poor to be extradited to L.A., so claims his legal team.

www.tmz.com

Harvey Weinstein appears at extradition hearing

(Reuters) - The convicted former movie producer Harvey Weinstein appeared on Monday at an upstate New York court proceeding over whether to extradite ...

whbl.com

Harvey Weinstein indicted on sex assault charges in Los Angeles, extradition from N.Y. delayed

A grand jury returned an indictment against Harvey Weinstein in L.A. County in connection with the sexual assaults of five women between 2004 and 2013.

www.latimes.com

Harvey Weinstein is indicted in California, appears at extradition hearing

Harvey Weinstein has been indicted in California on sexual assault charges, one of his lawyers said on Monday, as the former Hollywood movie producer appeared…

nationalpost.com

 

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@playahaitian

Harvey Weinstein's Nearly Blind and Lost Teeth, Lawyer Claims at Extradition Hearing

Harvey Weinstein's health is too poor to be extradited to L.A., so claims his legal team.

www.tmz.com

Harvey Weinstein appears at extradition hearing

(Reuters) - The convicted former movie producer Harvey Weinstein appeared on Monday at an upstate New York court proceeding over whether to extradite ...

whbl.com

Harvey Weinstein indicted on sex assault charges in Los Angeles, extradition from N.Y. delayed

A grand jury returned an indictment against Harvey Weinstein in L.A. County in connection with the sexual assaults of five women between 2004 and 2013.

www.latimes.com

Harvey Weinstein is indicted in California, appears at extradition hearing

Harvey Weinstein has been indicted in California on sexual assault charges, one of his lawyers said on Monday, as the former Hollywood movie producer appeared…

nationalpost.com

He tough, right?

 

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He tough, right?

 

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Family Matters star Jaleel White on ex-mentor Bill Cosby: 'He is paying the appropriate price'

The former T.G.I.F. star reflects on Cosby's prison sentence and 2018 conviction.
By Jolie Lash
May 10, 2021 at 06:37 PM EDT



Jaleel White opened up about his former mentor, disgraced comedian and sitcom star Bill Cosby, during Sunday's edition of TV One's Uncensored.
White, famous for playing Steve Urkel on Family Matters, spoke about nearly nabbing the role of Cosby's youngest son on The Cosby Show (the role of Rudy, played by Keisha Knight-Pulliam, was originally going to be a boy). "I remember I just bawled my eyes out, bawled my eyes out," White said on Uncensored.

Despite not landing the role, White said he later became close with Cosby.

"I fostered a relationship with Mr. Cosby, separate and apart," he revealed. "Many dinners at his house, breakfasts, I even ran into a rough patch, and he's directly responsible for why I ended up at William Morris Agency, which became an education unto itself."

At some point, though, their relationship changed, but White declined to go into details about why. He did, however, address the sexual misconduct scandals surrounding Cosby, who was sentenced to prison in 2018 for sexual assault.

"I actually had a bit of a falling out with Mr. Cosby. I kept that to myself," White explained. "Knocking off these monuments who are still human beings, it's tough. And you go back in time, and you realize how close you were to something, and you put yourself in rooms where you realize his wife wasn't there, that woman was probably there for that purpose. You know, it's a hell of a hindsight thing to look at, and you don't want anyone to feel like you're trying to use them for clout. You know what I'm saying? A revered man did terrible things, and he's paying the price. I think that's where we leave it: A revered man did a terrible thing, and he is paying the appropriate price."

In 2018, Cosby was sentenced to between 3 and 10 years in prison after being convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee in his mansion in 2004.

During his episode of the TV One series, White also spoke about his time on Family Matters, including why he was reduced to tears after playing Myrtle Urkel, Steve Urkel's cousin. Watch White explain more in the clip below.

 

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Fuck urkle

 

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