Harvey Weinstein was a “predator” with unmistakable patterns who used his Hollywood energy to lure ladies into conferences, sexually assault them and escape the results, a prosecutor stated in closing arguments Wednesday on the former film mogul’s Los Angeles trial.
Deputy District Lawyer Marlene Martinez stated the accusers who testified through the trial entered Weinstein’s resort suites or let him into their resort rooms with no concept what awaited them.
“Who would suspect that such an leisure business titan can be a degenerate rapist?” Deputy District Lawyer Marlene Martinez stated to jurors.
She continually emphasised the similarity of the testimony of the 4 ladies Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting and the 4 different accusers who testified to indicate his propensity for such acts.
“These are eight ladies who have no idea one another,” Martinez stated, displaying the jury a composite picture of all of them on a display screen. “All of them describe the identical conduct by the identical man.”
Weinstein’s attorneys have stated, and are prone to argue in their very own closing Thursday, that two of the ladies had consensual intercourse for profession development with the film producer. His attorneys have stated the encounters with the opposite two ladies didn’t occur in any respect.
After greater than 5 weeks of testimony, jurors, who’re anticipated to get the case Thursday, will probably be tasked with deciding on two counts of rape and 5 different counts of sexual assault relationship from 2005 to 2013. Weinstein, 70, has pleaded not responsible.
In her closing, Martinez outlined what she stated had been Weinstein’s constant techniques throughout many years. He would prepare to fulfill with a girl at a resort. Then he would discover a method to carry her into his suite. He would then go from “charming and complimentary to aggressive and demanding,” she stated, both masturbating in entrance of them, groping them or raping them, usually discovering methods to forestall them from leaving.
“For this predator, inns had been his entice,” Martinez stated. “Confined inside these partitions victims weren’t in a position to run from his hulking mass. Folks weren’t in a position to hear their screams, they weren’t in a position to see them cower.”
She famous that most of the ladies earlier than their assaults had been reassured by the presence of different ladies who labored with Weinstein. These ladies would instantly and unexpectedly depart the victims alone and remoted with him, Martinez stated.
“He used ladies to make these ladies really feel snug,” Martinez stated, “to get their guard down.”
Three such ladies testified through the trial. All stated that they had little reminiscence of the accusers or the conferences that they had allegedly led them to, which Martinez referred to as “handy,” suggesting that they had betrayed their fellow ladies.
“Isn’t there a lady code?” Martinez stated. “Apparently, if you understand the defendant, there isn’t any woman code.”
She stated that through the encounters, Weinstein ignored clear and repeated indicators of lack of consent.
She ceaselessly harkened again to a line from a witness who appeared of minimal significance when he was on the stand, Weinstein’s LA limo driver Freddy Baroth, who testified that he was usually ordered to run pink lights when Weinstein was in a rush, saying “when Harvey desires to go, you go.”
“He didn’t care about `no’s,” Martinez stated. “He didn’t care about pink lights.”
She used variations of the picture all through her argument.
Weinstein, sitting on the defence desk, didn’t look throughout the courtroom at Martinez throughout her presentation, staring ahead, trying on the display screen she was projecting photographs on, and infrequently trying all the way down to make notes.
Throughout their cross-examinations of the ladies, defence attorneys usually challenged them over continued associations with Weinstein after their alleged assaults. Some met with him or e-mailed him once more. Others attended events and premieres at his invitation. A therapeutic massage therapist who alleged he assaulted her after one therapy twice agreed to deal with him once more.
Martinez urged jurors to not make an excessive amount of of such decisions by the ladies, saying they had been the results of deliberate makes an attempt by Weinstein to cowl up what he had completed to them.
“If his victims had been photographed at these events,” she stated, “in the event that they took these conferences, how may they accuse him of sexual assault?”
She stated he used his energy as a lot after the assaults as he did earlier than and through them.
“He used that energy to reside his life with out the repercussions of his predatory behaviour,” Martinez stated.
The proceedings have coincided with a number of trials on each coasts of Hollywood males with #MeToo implications, together with the rape trial simply down the corridor of Danny Masterson, which was declared a mistrial whereas Martinez was giving her closing argument.
