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Harvey Weinstein set to plead not guilty in NY
NEW YORK, June 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was
expected to plead not guilty Tuesday to rape and sexual assault charges in
New York, opening a legal battle for the #MeToo movement that dreams of
seeing him behind bars.
The 66-year-old Weinstein was charged with rape and another sex crime in
New York late last month, nearly eight months after his career imploded in a
blaze of accusations of sexual misconduct.
Weinstein was due in a Manhattan court at 10 am (1400 GMT) for a formal
reading of the charges: he has been indicted for allegedly forcing a woman to
perform oral sex on him in 2004, and for allegedly raping another at a
Manhattan hotel in 2013.
If convicted, that crime could put him in prison for as many as 25 years.
Two women are named in this indictment. But nearly 100 have said since
October they were harassed or sexually abused by Weinstein over several
decades.
That has turned the one-time toast of Hollywood into the catalyst of the
MeToo movement.
Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow and Angelina Jolie are among more than two
dozen actresses who say they were sexually harassed by the producer. A few,
including Asia Argento and Rose McGowan, said they were raped.
The fall of Weinstein triggered a tsunami in US society as many women came
forward with similar accusations against other powerful men in the
entertainment world, the media and government.
– New lawsuits –
Benjamin Brafman, Weinstein’s lawyer, is one of America’s most celebrated
criminal defense attorneys. His past clients include former IMF boss
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who escaped criminal prosecution for alleged sexual
assault in 2011.
No details about the identity of the two accusers were given by the
prosecutor.
Brafman said the rape complaint came from a woman who had a 10-year affair
with Weinstein, but the information was not confirmed.
The accusation of forced fellatio comes from Lucia Evans, a marketing
consultant who, in 2004, was an aspiring actress. She told her story in
October to the magazine The New Yorker. Her story resembles many other
reports of unwanted contact from stars such as Ashley Judd or Paltrow.
But especially countless were young unknown or just emerging stars who
hoped to see the revered producer make them Hollywood stars.
Evans tells how he spoke of a possible place in his show for aspiring
models “Project Runway”, before forcing her into oral sex, and then went
about the day as if nothing had happened.
The prosecutor will still have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that
Weinstein committed illegal acts, and with these two women specifically.
No one, however, expects the lawsuits will be dropped, as was the case for
Strauss-Kahn.
Indeed, it is the same Brafman who defended the former IMF director against
the same Manhattan prosecutor, Cyrus Vance.
Last week three actresses filed a new lawsuit against Weinstein alleging
sexual assault. They urged other victims to come forward and join the
complaint.
Melissa Thompson, one of the women filing the class action lawsuit, said
she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein during a 2011 meeting to discuss a
new marketing tool.
Following public revelations last year about his predatory behavior,
Thompson said she was referred to Brafman and another attorney at his firm,
Alex Spiro.
“Thompson was led to believe that Brafman and Spiro were representing
victims against Weinstein,” said the law firm representing her, Hagens
Berman.
“Deceptive tactics were used to entice her to turn over her visual and
audio evidence of Weinstein’s conduct (which she did),” it said.
“Melissa did not learn that Brafman was actually then or would later be
Weinstein’s lead criminal defense attorney until after turning over the video
as evidence.”
BSS/AFP/ARS/1616 hrs