patrick.net

The defense has routinely seized upon the fact that Haley and Mann kept in contact with Weinstein, and in some cases engaged in consensual sex with him, after the dates of their alleged assaults.

Rotunno questioned why Haley continued to see Weinstein after the alleged assault in the summer of 2006, and contended that it was because they were in a romantic relationship, not a professional one, as Haley had told the jury.

“Seeing Harvey was something that made her happy,” Rotunno said.

Rotunno and co-counsel Damon Cheronis have painted the women as manipulative liars who controlled their relationships with Weinstein, flipping the narrative of the mogul as a predator on its head.

And the attorneys have emphasized the idea that the lines of the women’s relationships with Weinstein were blurry at best. During Mann’s days-long, emotional testimony, Rotunno confronted the woman with praise-heavy emails and notes she sent the mogul after he allegedly attacked her.

Mann testified that she sought validation from Weinstein and that he was a “pseudo-father” to her.

Rotunno argued Thursday that Mann had become a pawn of the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

“I feel sorry for Jessica Mann. She is a victim of this table,” Rotunno said, pointing to the prosecutors.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-02-13/weinstein-trial-closing-arguments

Talita Maia, a former roommate of the woman Weinstein is charged with raping, told the jury the woman never gave any indication that he victimized her — in fact, she said, the woman spoke highly of him and once called him her “spiritual soulmate.”

“She seemed to really like him as a person," Maia said. "She would only compliment him.”

Another friend of the woman testified that she seemed like “her everyday self” when they met up for breakfast with Weinstein just a short time after she alleges he assaulted her.

Thomas Richards, a Hollywood talent agent, testified the woman was friendly toward Weinstein during the breakfast and didn’t say or do anything to indicate she’d just been raped.

The third witness, Mexican model and actress Claudia Salinas, repudiated the testimony of Young, one of the women called by the prosecution to bolster the allegations of Weinstein’s main accusers.

Asked about Young’s claims that she stood by and did nothing while Weinstein groped her at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013, Salinas responded that it “never happened.”

Young had testified that Salinas closed the door behind her and Weinstein as they went into the bathroom, where she alleges he stripped off his clothes, grabbed her breast and masturbated. Once it was over, Young said she found Salinas standing outside the bathroom and shot her an evil look before leaving as quickly as she could.

“If I had done that, I would remember that,” Salinas testified. “I would never close the door on anybody.”

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/harvey-weinstein-found-guilty-of-sex-assault-could-face-decades-in-prison