Harvey Weinstein was “an abusive rapist” who believed he was the “master of his universe,” treating vulnerable young women who sought his professional help like “ants that he could step on without consequences,” prosecutors charged Friday during closing arguments at his watershed rape trial in Manhattan.
“The universe is run by [Weinstein] so, therefore, they don’t get to complain when they’re stepped on, spit on, demoralized, and then, yes, raped and abused,” Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi declared in Manhattan Supreme Court. “He made sure he can contact the people he was worried about as a little check to make sure one day they wouldn’t walk out of the shadows and call him what he was: an abusive rapist.”
“But he also underestimated them,” she continued, stating this case is about “power, manipulation, and abuse.”
ADVERTISEMENT
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape, for the alleged sexual assault of Miriam Haleyi inside his SoHo apartment in 2006 and the alleged 2013 rape of Jessica Mann inside a New York hotel room.
With the aid of a PowerPoint, Illuzzi reiterated the crux of the prosecution’s argument: The Pulp Fiction producer used his power and prestige in the entertainment industry to prey on women for over three decades, promising to kickstart their careers in exchange for sex acts.
“Women who have never met each other and yet share facts that are so detailed,” Illuzzi said. “This is the way you are experiencing what these women experienced right along with them. This experience, which is so palpable, was shared by these women decades, decades apart.”
During his four-week trial, half a dozen women gave graphic testimony against Weinstein, most of them claiming the Oscar-winner lured them into isolated places with the promise of career opportunities before sexually assaulting them.
The women admitted they never told the authorities about the abuse out of embarrassment and fear that Weinstein would ruin their chances of making it in Hollywood.
“When you consider why they didn’t tell, why they had further contact with him, why they continued to speak nicely to him, remember that none of these women... knew about each other,” Illuzzi said.
“That’s the hallmark of a predator. Isolate. Isolate them and they’re going to feel like they’re the only one,” she added. “You’re the only one, and he’s a giant, not only in his own industry but somebody who gets the presidents on the phone and is talking to A-list people you will never meet in your entire life.”
Defense attorney Donna Rotunno argued Thursday that Weinstein only had consensual sexual relationships with the women who testified against him.
“In their universe, women are not responsible for what 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,” Rotunno said. “In this script, the powerful man is the villain, and he is so unattractive and large that no woman would want to sleep with him voluntarily.”
Leaving the courtroom on Thursday, The King’s Speech producer proudly told reporters he “loved” Rotunno’s nearly five-hour closing argument, calling it “the Queen’s speech.” But as the prosecution labeled the movie mogul a rapist who emotionally and mentally manipulated his accusers he viewed “disposables,” Weinstein looked down at the defense table and played with the sleeves of his navy suit.
“He wants to get them into a situation where they feel stupid and belittle them,” Illuzzi said. “Belittled and stupid people do not complain, they don’t stick up for themselves, and they sure as hell don’t complain about their shame in a public place.”
Picking apart the defense’s argument, Illuzzi stressed that Haleyi—a 42-year-old former Project Runway production assistant who alleged that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her at his SoHo home in 2006—was manipulated into maintaining a relationship with Weinstein out of fear for her career.
“She wasn’t going to Harvey Weinstein’s apartment to have sex with Harvey Weinstein,” Illuzzi said, reminding jurors the London-born Haleyi was desperate to find more production work to stay in the country. “She was going to Harvey Weinstein’s apartment to be polite and professional.”
“Is that consent? Is that consent to have sex? There are no blurred lines here, this is a crime,” the prosecutor added, noting that a woman should be able to go “unescorted to a man’s apartment and not suffer sexual assault.”
The prosecution will also defend Mann, 34, who during her emotional three-day testimony said that Weinstein assaulted her multiple times during their twisted relationship—including raping her in a DoubleTree Hotel room in March 2013 and attacking her again months later at a Beverly Hills hotel.
“That question is not whether Jessica Mann made a bad decision, the question for you is whether Jessica Mann is lying about it. She’s telling you the truth—she’s the victim of rape,” Illuzzi said.
The former aspiring actress admitted she maintained a relationship with Weinstein to “protect” herself and her budding acting career and had consensual sexual encounters with the movie mogul several times, including a failed threesome.
“This was not a relationship. This was Jessica Mann as Harvey Weinstein’s rag doll,” Illuzzi said, stating Mann was constantly “denigrated and humiliated.”
Weinstein’s defense attorneys insisted Mann was not a victim but a manipulative opportunist, pointing to the many friendly emails she sent the Shakespeare in Love producer over the years. Illuzzi, however, noted to jurors that this was an “arms-length relationship” devoid of gifts, vacations, or any communication outside of email.
“Is that how you communicate with your lover?” the prosecutor asked jurors.
“She could have been writing him love notes every single day,” she later added. “She could have been married to him. It still wouldn’t make a difference. He wouldn’t be allowed to rape her.”
In addition to Mann and Haleyi, jurors have also heard from four corroborating witnesses whose allegations fall outside the statute of limitations: Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein violently raped her in her apartment in 1993 or 1994; Dawn Dunning, who said Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2004; Tarale Wulff, who was allegedly assaulted by the producer a year later; and Lauren Young, who said she was assaulted in Weinstein’s Beverly Hills hotel room days before the 2013 Oscars.
“Did it look like they were all having fun up there?” Illuzzi asked the jury on Friday. “Or did it look like it was horrible and grueling? They were compelled by their own morality to put themselves through this.”
After the defense slammed Sciorra, stating her highly publicized testimony jump-started her stalling career as the “darling of the movement of the moment,” Illuzzi asked jurors whether they really believed that the actress exposing her traumatic experience would make her more “marketable.”
“Is anybody going to want that image connected to whatever movie they put Annabella in? This is a career move for Annabella Sciorra? Really?” the prosecutor scoffed.
