The judge in Harvey Weinstein’s trial has admonished his defense lawyer for the ‘tentacles of her PR juggernaut’ after she wrote an op-ed two days ago urging the jury to clear the disgraced Hollywood producer.
Jury deliberations are expected to begin on Tuesday in Weinstein’s trial after often-emotional testimony from multiple women who have accused him of sexual assault.
Prior to jurors being sent out on Tuesday, Judge James Burke admonished Weinstein’s lead defense attorney, Donna Rotunno, for an op-ed that was published by Newsweek on Sunday.
In his sharpest rebuke to date, the judge said: ‘I want to caution you about the tentacles of your public relations juggernaut’.
He has banned Weinstein’s defense team from speaking to the media until after the trial ends.
Prosecutors had said the article was ‘akin to jury tampering’ and demanded that Weinstein be remanded in custody because he must have directed it.
Harvey Weinstein arrived at court in New York on Tuesday as jury deliberations were expected to begin in the disgraced Hollywood producer’s trial
In the op-ed, Rotunno wrote: ‘I implore the members of this jury to do what they know is right and was expected of them from the moment they were called upon to serve their civic duty in a court of law.
‘The facts are the facts. Harvey Weinstein is innocent. His fate hangs in the balance, and the world is watching’.
Prosecutor Joan Illuzi said that this was ‘completely 100 per cent inappropriate behavior’.
‘This is a direct violation of the court’s orders… if this is the conduct which is allowed in this court then we are all lost. There is no way the sanctity of a jury can ever exist and continue if every party is permitted to say something that would not be able to say in court.’
Illuzi demanded that the jury be instructed to ignore the Newsweek op-ed and that Weinstein be remanded in custody because he must have directed it.
Illuzi added there was ‘no way that Miss Rotunno did this without the prompting, encouragement, knowledge and permission of this defendant’.
When asked to explain herself, Rotunno said it ‘wasn’t an appeal to the jury it was about my feeling about the jury system as a whole’ and that it was ‘ridiculous’ to say otherwise.
‘Writing an op-ed about the jury system as a whole doesn’t speak to the jury’.
Prior to jurors being sent out on Tuesday, Judge James Burke admonished Weinstein’s lead defense attorney, Donna Rotunno, for an op-ed that was published by Newsweek on Sunday
Jury deliberations are expected to begin on Tuesday in the disgraced Hollywood producer’s trial after often-emotional testimony from multiple women who accused him of sexual assault
The panel of five women and seven men will begin to weigh the evidence that Weinstein raped onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performed oral sex on film production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006.
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty and maintains any sexual conduct was consensual.
Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra also testified she was allegedly raped by Weinstein in 1993 or 1994 in her Manhattan apartment.
Weinstein is not charged with attacking Sciorra but she was brought in to testify so prosecutors could make the argument Weinstein had a habit of preying on women. Her accusation is too old to be the basis for criminal charges on its own.
During the six-week trial, the three other women – costume designer Dawn Dunning, model Tarale Wulff and actress Lauren Young – testified they were enticed into meeting Weinstein for professional reasons and then groped or raped.
They testified about encounters separate from the crimes Weinstein was accused of committing.
Prosecutors called the women as witnesses to try to establish Weinstein’s motive and a signature pattern of behavior that legal experts described as potentially powerful evidence that might bolster the claims of Haleyi and Mann.
New York law customarily prevents prosecutors from presenting testimony of ‘prior bad acts’ because it is generally considered prejudicial to a defendant.
An exception to the law allowed prosecutors to call Dunning, Wulff and Young to show Weinstein ‘had a particular intention’ or exhibited a ‘signature’ pattern of behavior when he invited women to meet and discuss professional opportunities.
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty and maintains any sexual conduct was consensual. Weinstein and his legal team arrive at the Criminal Court
The jury will begin to weigh the evidence that Weinstein raped onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann (left) in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performed oral sex on film production assistant Mimi Haleyi (right) in 2006
Under New York state law, such witnesses are known as ‘Molineux’ witnesses.
A lawyer for Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, said it was ‘extraordinary to have three Molineux witnesses testify when there are only two complaining witnesses.’
‘It is often difficult for prosecutors to convince a judge to allow one Molineux witness,’ he said in an email.
Dunning testified that the producer groped her in 2004 and offered her movie roles in exchange for three-way sex with him and his assistant, which she refused.
Young, a model and actress, testified that the film producer trapped her in a hotel bathroom in 2013, masturbated in front of her while groping her breasts, and told her: ‘This is what all the actresses do to make it.’
On cross-examination, the defense challenged the women’s credibility.
In Dunning’s case, Weinstein’s lawyers pressed her about her decision to meet with Weinstein weeks after the alleged assault and the fact that she did not tell anyone about the encounter until years later.
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon said in her closing argument last week that Weinstein treated the women who accused him like ‘complete disposables’ and made them feel ashamed even though he was the one who was at fault.
‘What he wants to do is he wants to get them in a situation where they feel stupid. If you feel stupid and belittled, belittled, stupid people do not complain,’ the prosecutor told jurors.
But defense lawyer Donna Rotunno said in her closing that the prosecutors had ‘created a universe that strips adult women of common sense, autonomy and responsibility’.
Rotunno suggested that, according to prosecutors, Weinstein’s accusers ‘are not even responsible for sitting at their computers sending emails to someone across the country’.