The Los Angeles rape trial against Harvey Weinstein began Wednesday with closing arguments. This culminated more than one month of testimony, which included eight women who were accused of sexual assault and rape.
Before prosecutors began their closing statement, the defense breezed through a few housecleaning witnesses on Wednesday, including a security worker named Christian Sheriff, who testified that there was a fire alarm at Mr. C’s hotel the night Jane Doe 1 testified Weinstein tracked her down in her room and raped her.
Mike Easter of the FBI, an expert in cell-phone positioning and a special agent on intelligence, was also a witness. Easter testified that Jane Doe 1 had sent a message from Venice to Claudia Salinas. It was assumed that defense attorney Mark Werksman would clarify the reason for Wednesday’s witnesses in his closing statement.
Marlene Martinez (Deputy District Attorney) handled closing argument duties during the afternoon session. Weistein was then called to a “titan” He used his power “to prey on women. To silence women. He used that power to live his life without the repercussions of his predatory behavior. There is no question that Harvey Weinstein was a predator,” Showing an image showing a wolf covered in snow, she stated.
“For this predator, hotels were his trap. Confined within those walls victims were not able to run from his hulking mass. People were not able to hear their screams, they were not able to see them cower.”
She summarized the testimony of several of the eight witnesses, pulling together common threads of Weinstein’s m.o.He lured women into business meetings and then baited them into the hotel rooms. Then he assaulted them.
“These are eight women who do not know each other. They’ve never even met. Yet they all describe the same conduct by the same man.”
Martinez notes that Weinstein’s tactics included using women – executive assistants and other female associates, like Claudia Salinas, accused of roping one woman into a bathroom assault – to make his victims feel comfortable and let their guard down.
“No matter how much Ms. Salinas tried to deny remembering anything, she tried to deny remembering the assault, the aftermath of the assault, the truth is she knows what happened. She was there,” Martinez said. Salinas rebutted the accusation.
Martinez added that Weinstein attempted to be a good person. “cover his tracks” With party invitations and auditions for roles. She tried to get ahead of the defense argument that the women – including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom – were seeking career advantages, or at least knew what they were getting into.
“In 2005, who would have thought that the most powerful man in Hollywood was a closet rapist?” Martinez said. “Who could blame [Newsom] for thinking that she could handle herself?”
“He was relentless,” Martinez spoke out about the Newsom attack. “He switches his tactics up. After being aggressive and chasing her around the room … he changed it up. He softened his approach … breaking down her walls.”
And finally, Martinez recast the alleged victims’ continued contact with Weinstein as an act of strength – considering the stakes of crossing one of the most powerful men in Hollywood.
“Getting on the defendant’s bad side? That would guarantee your career is over,” Martinez said. “These women had so many dreams that they were not going to let this monster destroy them.”
The court was scheduled to resume on Thursday morning.
Weinstein is already serving 23 years in a New York prison for criminal first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, a conviction he has been granted the right to appeal. Since the New York Times published his accusations five years ago, Weinstein has maintained that he is innocent.
Original 11 charges against Weinstein were brought by the prosecution based upon the allegations of 8 women. Jane Doe 5, however, never came to pass and four other charges were dropped without Jane Doe 5. Weinstein, who is still facing 140 years imprisonment in California for the five remaining counts of sexual assault as well as two counts each of rape could face up to 140 year sentences.