Latest news with #HarveyWeinstein
News.com.au
20 hours ago
- General
- News.com.au
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT; Harvey Weinstein ‘seriously contemplating' testifying at own rape trial
Harvey Weinstein is deliberating whether to take the stand as his trial on rape and criminal sexual charges winds down. "We're going to make a game time decision," his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told reporters outside the courtroom on Thursday. Weinstein did not testify as part of his 2020 trial in New York, nor did he testify at his California case for sexual assault. Aidala noted that the decision to testify is ultimately up to his client and that one of his partners had spent the majority of the past weekend prepping Weinstein for possibly taking the stand.
News.com.au
a day ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Harvey Weinstein ‘seriously contemplating' testifying at own rape trial
Harvey Weinstein is deliberating whether to take the stand as his trial on rape and criminal sexual charges winds down. "We're going to make a game time decision," his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, told reporters outside the courtroom on Thursday. Weinstein did not testify as part of his 2020 trial in New York, nor did he testify at his California case for sexual assault. Aidala noted that the decision to testify is ultimately up to his client and that one of his partners had spent the majority of the past weekend prepping Weinstein for possibly taking the stand.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Harvey Weinstein 'Seriously Contemplating' Testifying In Trial on Rape and Sexual Charges
Harvey Weinstein's defense team is still deliberating whether to put their client on the stand as his trial on rape and criminal sexual charges winds down. 'We're going to make a game time, more or less, decision,' Arthur Aidala, Weinstein's attorney, told reporters outside of the courtroom Thursday. More from The Hollywood Reporter Harvey Weinstein Survivors Speak Out to Support Three Women Testifying Against Him In New Trial Harvey Weinstein Claims Innocence on Candace Owens' Show: "Women Should Be Heard, But I'm Wrongfully Convicted" Harvey Weinstein Accuser Jessica Mann Testifies in Court, Says He Was "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Weinstein did not testify as part of his 2020 trial in New York, nor did he testify in his California case on sexual assault. Aidala noted that the decision to testify is ultimately up to the client, and that one of his partners had spent the majority of Memorial Day weekend prepping Weinstein for possibly taking the stand. 'There is a part of him that is seriously contemplating in a 'he-said, she-said' case whether human beings feel obligated to hear the other side of the story,' Aidala said. This comes after Weinstein gave an interview to conservative podcaster Candace Owens, in which he proclaimed his innocence, which was released last week. Asked how Weinstein is viewing how the trial is proceeding so far, Aidala said: 'He thinks that the evidence at this trial has been challenged very forcefully and that many of the complainant stories have been torn apart.' Weinstein has been present throughout the trial, which kicked off with opening arguments on April 23. The former mogul is being retried on a criminal sexual charge and a rape charge related to respective claims from former production assistant on Project Runway, Miriam Haley, who alleges he forced oral sex on her at his Manhattan apartment in 2006, and from aspiring actress Jessica Mann, who alleges she was raped by Weinstein in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel. Those charges were part of the 2020 trial, but Weinstein's conviction was overturned in April 2024. Weinstein is being newly charged with a criminal sexual charge related to claims from a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who says he forcibly performed oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in 2006. All three women have taken the stand over the past several weeks, and prosecution rested their case Wednesday. Weinstein's defense team began calling witnesses late Wednesday, and brought in a physician and pharmacist to the stand to describe an erectile dysfunction medication that had come up in testimony as the complaining witnesses described encounters with Weinstein. On Thursday, the defense team brought in Helga Rose Samuelson, who had shared an apartment with Sokola in 2005, to question the nature of the relationship between Weinstein and Sokola, with Samuelson saying that Weinstein had visited their apartment and gone into a bedroom with Sokola. Sokola denied this encounter happening when she was on the stand. At one point this week, the defense team raised the possibility of bringing in Owens as a witness, alleging that she had communications with Mann regarding whether she had viewed the encounter with Weinstein as rape. Aidala has asked Mann about this conversation in cross-examination, implying that she had said she did not consider it rape, but it was later stricken from the record and jurors received instructions to disregard the questioning as it was 'without factual basis.' Before the jury was read that stipulation, Aidala told Judge Curtis Farber that Weinstein wanted to know whether Owens could still be called as a witness, to which Farber said he would have to be notified. However, Aidala said Thursday that they did not expect to call her as a witness, as she had just had a child and he was 'not sure there's anything that's so gripping.' 'I don't think we're going to disturb Ms. Owens,' Aidala said. Instead, the defense team plans to call two witnesses Friday who will be used to question Mann's credibility. Aidala's team has also issued subpoenas for attorney Gloria Allred, who is Haley's personal attorney, but he noted they 'have not gone to great lengths to enforce the subpoena.' If Weinstein does not testify, closing arguments are expected to take place Tuesday. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
CTV News
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Harvey Weinstein's defence case begins in sex crimes retrial. Will he be a witness?
Harvey Weinstein appears in a Manhattan criminal court for his retrial, Wednesday, May 28, 2025, in New York. (Olga Fedorova/Pool Photo via AP) NEW YORK (AP) — After five weeks of testimony from Harvey Weinstein 's accusers and other prosecution witnesses at his sex crimes retrial, his defence has started presenting its own witnesses. But it's unclear whether the ex-studio boss himself will be one of them. He's due to decide in the coming days whether to testify. If he does, it would be a remarkable twist — and potentially risky legal move — in the yearslong saga of the onetime Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast. Weinstein, 73, is being retried on rape and sexual assault charges because New York's highest court overturned his 2020 conviction. He denies the allegations, and his attorneys maintain that anything that happened between him and his accusers was consensual. Weinstein's lawyers began calling witnesses late Wednesday, starting with a physician-pharmacist discussing a medication that had come up in testimony. Jurors heard Thursday from Helga Samuelsen, who shared a New York apartment in fall 2005 with Kaja Sokola, one of Weinstein's accusers. Sokola alleges that Weinstein forced oral sex on her the following year, after a series of unwanted advances that began when she was a 16-year-old fashion model in 2002. Sokola told jurors weeks ago that she never spent time with Weinstein in the apartment where she and Samuelsen stayed. But Samuelsen testified Thursday that one evening the doorbell rang, Sokola answered it and there was Weinstein. Samuelsen recalled that he and Sokola went into a bedroom, closed the door and emerged about a half-hour later, when Sokola saw Weinstein out. Samuelsen said she never spoke to Sokola about the visit. 'I think I kind of chose to not, really,' said Samuelsen, who was then a photographer's assistant. Having met Weinstein briefly in summer 2005, she later sought his help as she tried to launch a music career. He made some introductions and invited her to write a never-used movie score, Samuelsen said, and she formed a New York-area cabaret act around 2019 with a woman close to him. Samuelsen now works in insurance in her native Denmark. During the prosecution's phase of the trial, Weinstein's lawyers asked plenty of questions aimed at raising doubts about the credibility and accuracy of what jurors were hearing from prosecution witnesses, particularly Weinstein's three accusers in the case: Sokola, Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann. All three women were trying to build careers in show business and say he preyed on them by dangling work prospects. Mann alleges he raped her in 2013. Haley, like Sokola, accuses Weinstein of forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006. Weinstein didn't testify at his original trial. Many defendants in criminal cases don't. The U.S. Constitution guarantees that they don't have to. Jurors are told that they can't hold such silence against defendants and that it's up to prosecutors to prove their case; defendants do not need to prove anything. If defendants do take the stand, they open themselves to pointed questioning from prosecutors. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Sokola, Mann and Haley have given their permission to be identified. Jennifer Peltz, The Associated Press
2 days ago
- Entertainment
Harvey Weinstein's defense case begins in sex crimes retrial. Will he be a witness?
NEW YORK -- After five weeks of testimony from Harvey Weinstein 's accusers and other prosecution witnesses at his sex crimes retrial, his defense has started presenting its own witnesses. But it's unclear whether the ex-studio boss himself will be one of them. He's due to decide by end of court Thursday whether to testify. If he does, it would be a remarkable twist — and potentially risky legal move — in the yearslong saga of the onetime Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast. Weinstein, 73, is being retried on rape and sexual assault charges because New York's highest court overturned his 2020 conviction. He denies the allegations, and his attorneys maintain that anything that happened between him and his accusers was consensual. Weinstein didn't testify at his original trial. Many defendants in criminal cases don't. The U.S. Constitution guarantees that they don't have to. Jurors are told that they can't hold such silence against defendants and that it's up to prosecutors to prove their case; defendants do not need to prove anything. If defendants do take the stand, they open themselves to pointed questioning from prosecutors. Weinstein's lawyers began calling witnesses late Wednesday, starting with a physician-pharmacist discussing a medication that had come up in testimony. In the weeks prior, the defense asked plenty of questions aimed at raising doubts about the credibility and accuracy of what jurors were hearing from prosecution witnesses, particularly Weinstein's three accusers in the case. Two of the women allege that he forcibly performed oral sex on them, separately, in 2006. The third says he raped her in 2013. All three were trying to build careers in show business and say he preyed on them by dangling work prospects.
