NYC prosecutor says Harvey Weinstein ‘underestimated' his sex assault accusers
At the height of his power in Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein wouldn't take no for answer, but he ultimately 'underestimated the power and strength' of the three women accusing him of sexual assault, a prosecutor in his Manhattan retrial told jurors Wednesday.
'They were all raped by Harvey Weinstein. Over the last eight weeks you heard first-hand about how the defendant raped and sexually abused Miriam Haley, Kaja Sokola and Jessica Mann,' Assistant D.A. Nicole Blumberg said to cap off her marathon closing argument after recapping in small detail each of the three accusers' testimony.
'He held the golden ticket, the chance to make it or not. He made each of these women feel small, no match for the power broker of Hollywood,' she said. 'Each victim stayed quiet and compliant for years. They stayed quiet and complaint for years until they knew they were not alone. … In the end, despite the fact that the defendant thought he picked the perfect victims, he underestimated them. He underestimated their power and their strength.'
Haley, a former TV producer who met Weinstein in 2004, got an off-the-books job working for the 'Project Runway' TV show in New York in 2006. She accused Weinstein of pulling out a tampon and forcibly performing oral sex on her in July 2006, and testified about a second, unwanted sexual encounter at the Tribeca Grand Hotel two weeks later.
Sokola testified that Weinstein attacked her when she was a 16-year-old model, rubbing her vagina under her pants and underwear in 2002, and in 2006, he forcibly performed oral sex on her at the Tribeca Grand Hotel while her sister waited at a restaurant table downstairs. Sokola, an aspiring actress, said she brought her sister to meet Weinstein that day because she wanted to show her family her Hollywood dreams should be taken seriously.
Mann, an evangelical raised on a farm in Washington state who also hoped to become an actress, alleges Weinstein raped her in Midtown's DoubleTree Hotel in March 2013, but maintained a complicated 'relationship' that included some consensual sexual encounters for years.
Mann and Haley testified at Weinstein's 2020 trial, which ended in his guilty verdict and a 23-year prison term before the state's highest court overturned the conviction last year.
In a closing argument that stretched across Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday, Blumberg said all three women feared Weinstein's influence on their lives and careers if they came forward.
'They buried their trauma as if nothing happened to them. They buried it from themselves. They buried it from the defendant. They buried it from most of the rest of the world,' she said.
But they ultimately went public after Weinstein's history as a serial sex abuser came out in the news in October 2017, Blumberg said.
'It took strength, it took courage, but they were able to do it. … He couldn't silence them forever.'
Blumberg also took a swipe at defense lawyer Arthur Aidala's bombastic closing argument Tuesday, who made references to the movies 'My Cousin Vinny' and 'Pulp Fiction,' gave details about his own sex life, compared reasonable doubt to a piece of a broken wine glass in his grandmother's pot of sauce, and mimicked Haley crying during cross examination.
In one dramatic moment, Aidala stomped into the witness box and gave an impression of witness Elizabeth Entin, one of two friends who testified that Haley told them about the alleged 2006 sexual assault shortly after it happened.
Blumberg derided Aidala's closing as an 'Academy Award-winning performance.'
'He's the only one who actually acted in this courtroom,' she said. 'He mocked every witness, but maybe Elizabeth Entin the most. Because her testimony is the most damaging.'
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