Mel Gibson can be called to testify against Harvey Weinstein at the producer’s upcoming Los Angeles rape trial, a judge ruled on Friday.
Prosecutors plan to call Weinstein to support Jane Doe 3, who alleges that Weinstein sexually assaulted Jane Doe 3. Jane Doe 3 claims Weinstein abused her in 2010 after she received a massage at his hotel. According to Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez, the woman later told Gibson about the incident during a massage, and Gibson’s testimony would help buttress her allegation.
Judge Lisa B. Lench permitted Gibson to be called to the witness stand. A defense request to have Gibson answer questions about anti-semitic and racist statements made over the years was denied by her. Gibson is not allowed to speak out against Weinstein.
Gibson had ill will towards Weinstein since the release of “Passion of the Christ,”It was widely believed that it played on antisemitic themes. Weinstein published a book later. “Perspectives on the Passion of the Christ,”This challenged the film.
“This created a feud between Mr. Gibson and Mr. Weinstein,” argued Mark Werksman, Weinstein’s attorney.
Werksman incorrectly claimed that the film had won an Oscar for best movie. Weinstein gestured with disdain with his arms and said no.
Werksman also claimed that Gibson is not “now trying to rehabilitate his image by becoming a champion of the #MeToo movement.”
The attorneys claim that Gibson claimed to Jane Doe 3 that he had been a victim of a fraud. “PTSD reaction”He brought up the name when he spoke of it. “Harvey”During a massage. Gibson was referring to Weinstein within the context of a business transaction. The woman stopped her massage and began crying. “gave the idea that Weinstein sexually assaulted or groped her,”Werksman stated.
Werksman suggested that Gibson should be allowed to confront him about the antisemitic tirade he launched following his arrest in 2006.
“How is it relevant if he’s racist toward African Americans or Latinos?” Lench asked.
“It goes to his unwillingness to grant equal status to someone who is not of his ilk. He has a white-supremacist view,” Werksman responded. “Someone with white-supremacist values might have no problem perjuring himself against a Jewish defendant.”
Lench ultimately permitted the defense to ask Gibson about any animosity toward Weinstein.
“I’m not going to allow you to get into his other comments that may indicate his general demeanor about, as you say, ‘people who are not of his ilk,’”She said. “I will allow you to question him about whether or not there is personal animosity between the two of them.”
Later, the judge allowed defense to identify the book. “Naked Massage,” that Jane Doe 3 was trying to publish with Weinstein’s help.
Jane Doe 1 was the subject of Jane Doe 1’s claims. She is an Italian model, who alleges Weinstein raped Jane Doe 1 at the Mr C. hotel in Los Angeles Italia Film Festival.
The defense argued against the prosecution’s intention to use so-called “fresh complaint”Witnesses for each of the five victims and four alleged victims “prior bad acts” witnesses.
Weinstein’s lawyer Alan Jackson proposed that the prosecution limit its use of fresh complaints — statements made by a victim within a short period of time after a crime — to one per alleged victim, and none for the uncharged witnesses.
“I don’t believe there’s any case law that suggests they get to pile on fresh complaint witnesses in multiples,”Jackson later added. “It dilutes the evidence. I think it’s a waste of time. I think it’s improper. I think it dilutes Mr. Weinstein’s due process.”
It could be described as “Energizer Bunny prosecution,”Jackson stated that the introduction of new complaints has led to Jackson’s resignation. “far more prejudice than value.”
Jackson referenced calls Jane Doe 1 made to one of the witnesses, Lubov Smirnova, saying “something terrible happened.”
The “vague statement”Jackson said that this isn’t a new complaint: “None of those have the specificity to rise to a fresh complaint. It’s prejudicial.”
Lench ruled that both complaints made to Smirnova are admissible, in addition to a complaint made to Jane Doe 1’s daughter Maria C.
Lench will permit the defense to present photos into evidence of Jane Doe 1, including deleted kickboxing images, that he said could question Jane Doe’s ability to escape or overcome a threat. Lench was in agreement with Paul Thompson, the Deputy District Attorney. However, the questioning could perpetuate a myth about rape.
Jackson later claimed that Jane Doe 1 was the prosecution’s claim “did not say anything about his scrotum or testicles in her first two interviews”It was factually false. He cited three interviews with LAPD Detective Javier Vargas and Deputy District Attorney Lowrie Mendoza in which she is quoted as saying multiple times that she was forced to “suck his balls, put his testicles in her mouth.”
Weinstein doesn’t have testicles, Jackson said. Actress Jessica Mann testified in graphic detail during his New York trial about his “deformed” genitalia.
After three days’ worth of jury selection, Friday saw the number of potential jurors drop to 160.
Weinstein faces 11 sexual assault charges in connection to alleged attacks on five women from 2004 to 2013. After being convicted in New York in 2020 of rape, Weinstein is currently serving a 23 year sentence. New York’s highest court has agreed to hear an appeal, but a conviction in Los Angeles — where he faces up to 140 years behind bars — could effectively guarantee that he’s behind bars for life.