Harvey Weinstein’s Rape Trial Now in L.A. Jury’s Hands

Over the course of five weeks, 44 witnesses have testified in Harvey Weinstein’s trial over accusations that he sexually assaulted four women and four others whose accusations didn’t lead to charges.

Prosecutors, wrapping up their closing arguments on Friday, said that the Jane Doe accusers and witnesses individually came forward without knowing each other’s stories to take down a “titan of the film industry” who weaponized his power to “prey on women” in his orbit. They detailed a consistent pattern across the assaults.

Advancing a clashing portrayal of the allegations, a lawyer for Weinstein countered that his accusers either outright lied about the incidents or engaged in “transactional sex.” He argued that prosecutors offered so many witnesses — especially those whose claims aren’t at the center of the trial — to prop up what the defense described as a weak case.

“Take my word for it — five words that sum up the entirety of the prosecution’s case,” said Alan Jackson, representing Weinstein. He said that Jane Does No. 1 and 2 “simply lied,” arguing that they offered “far-fetched, unsupported stories,” while Jane Does No. 3 and 4 had consensual sex with Weinstein to further their careers.

A Los Angeles jury of nine men and three women will now vet the credibility of the accusers and witnesses to decide Weinstein’s guilt. He’s charged with seven counts of sex crimes, including rape, in connection with the assaults of four women from 2004 to 2013. Midway through the trial, four charges tied to a fifth Jane Doe were dropped without explanation. The disgraced movie mogul is currently serving a 23-year sentence after being convicted in New York.

During closing arguments, defense attorney Jackson extensively challenged testimony from four witnesses who testified about uncharged sexual assaults. He keyed in on the account of Ambra B., who met Weinstein at Radio City Music Hall in 2015 and was urged by her agent to take a meeting with him. She reported Weinstein to law enforcement after he allegedly groped her breasts and put his hand up her skirt.

“If you don’t trust me then we have no reason to do anything and you will lose big opportunities,” Weinstein said to her at a meeting following the incident in a police sting.

Prosecutors spent the majority of their closing arguments arguing that Weinstein’s alleged rape of Ambra B. demonstrates a “recorded pattern” across his assaults. They stressed how he used the offer of a meeting to discuss her career as bait to lure her into an isolated hotel room, like the Jane Doe accusers, to assault her. Marlene Martinez, a deputy district attorney, said that the eight women who testified in the trial described identical accounts of how they were assaulted.

“These are 8 women who do not know each other,” Martinez said. “They’ve never even met. Yet they all describe the same conduct by the same man.”

In one alleged assault, Weinstein allegedly barged into Jane Doe No. 1’s hotel room, where he pulled the actress into the bathroom, pushed her over the sink and raped her. In another incident, Weinstein backed Jane Doe No. 3 into a corner, reached inside her shirt to grope her breasts and masturbated onto the floor — another common element across the alleged assaults.

Weinstein’s attorney Jackson urged the jury to ignore Ambra B.’s testimony, arguing that she’s only a “named witness, not a Jane Doe.” He said that that other accusers had access to the details of her allegations, implying that they coordinated their accounts.

“They want to use this evidence to pile onto Harvey Weinstein,” Jackson added, referring to prosecutors offering four named witnesses testifying about uncharged sexual crimes in addition to numerous corroborating witnesses backing up their accounts that they were assaulted. “It has nothing to do with the actual evidence in this case.”

The defense stressed jury instructions directing jurors to ignore testimony from a witness who they believe lied on the stand.

In trials involving sexual assault, a statute in the California evidence code allows jurors to use individual charges to corroborate others and to consider evidence involving prior bad acts, even if they didn’t lead to charges. Weinstein appealed his conviction in New York, which was rejected, on the basis that such testimony from three women improperly tainted the jury against him. He’s expected to do the same if he’s convicted in Los Angeles.

The Hollywood Reporter doesn’t typically name people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they voluntarily come forward. Several of the women who testified against Weinstein have disclosed that they were assaulted.

Among them is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was a relatively unknown actress when she met Weinstein at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005 before marrying Gov. Gavin Newsom. She testified that Weinstein raped her after their initial encounter during a meeting he set up to discuss her career, bursting into tears when asked to identify the disgraced movie mogul.

“He’s wearing a suit and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me,” she said from the witness stand.

Weinstein has maintained that he and Siebel Newsom had consensual sex in what his lawyer called a “transactional relationship,” like he had with Jane Doe No. 3. Jackson said she had sex with Weinstein dozens of times, trading on the access that he could provide her. He also claimed that she brought her allegations too late.

On rebuttal, Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson questioned why the defense would raise the issue of the statute of limitations when Weinstein maintains that he didn’t assault her.

“The fact they’re contesting this is really telling,” he said.

The prosecutor challenged arguments that Siebel Newsom gained anything from her relationship with Weinstein.

“If this is transactional, what did she get?” he asked. The prosecutor also emphasized Weinstein’s lawyer Mark Werksman calling Siebel Newsom “just another bimbo that slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead” by making herself a “prominent victim.” He said she made herself a target of unwanted attention by becoming a part of the case.

In his final remarks, Thompson directed jurors to look at a consistent method in which Weinstein allegedly assaulted his eight accusers.

“You can tell from the pattern that Weinstein raped the women who testified in this case,” he said.

The argument capped off the prosecution to the five week trial on the ninth floor courtroom of the Clara Shortridge Foltz criminal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.