When Harvey Weinstein traveled the world like a Hollywood titan, his film production and distribution company would often organize parties. His assistants knew exactly who to invite.
There was a list of women called ‘Friends of Harvey’, according to one of his former executive assistants. The list was split by the city, country and region, and Mr Weinstein’s assistants were dependent on it, said the former assistant, Elizabeth Persz.
“Friends of Harvey are women he would meet at events or parties or festivals,” said Mrs. Persz last week during the introduction of Mr Weinstein in New York for sexual crimes. “Or somewhere.”
And if a woman got out of grace, she said, her name would be crossed out.
A woman in the ‘La Friends’ group, according to a version of the list presented by public prosecutors, was Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress who says that Mr Weinstein raped her in 2013.
Mrs. Mann is one of the most important witnesses in the introduction of Mr Weinstein in the Criminal Court of Manhattan. After a constitutional court an earlier conviction destroyed Last year the former producer is now confronted with two counts of one criminal sexual act in the first degree and one count of third -degree rape.
Mrs Mann testified in the first test, in 2020, together with another prosecutor, Miriam HaleyA former television production assistant who said that Mr Weinstein attacked her in 2006. In his new process, Mr Weinstein is confronted with a new indictment of sexual abuse Kaja SokolaA model, in a hotel in Manhattan in 2006.
Mr Weinstein has also been convicted of sex crimes in California and has been sentenced to prison.
As the month -old test resumes Monday, this is what has happened so far and what to expect.
A diary and testimony of a new witness
For about five days of witness this month, Mrs. Sokola explained her history of interactions with Mr Weinstein, starting in 2002 when she met him at the age of 16 in New York City. Mr Weinstein attacked her several times in the years that followed, she said.
One of Mr.’s lawyers. Weinstein, Michael Cibella, tried to chip away to the testimony of Mrs. Sokola during cross -examination.
He asked Mrs. Sokola about her relationship with her alienated husband and suggested that she sued Mr Weinstein and his companies in 2019 because she needed money to leave him. Then she used the settlement she received to finance her return to New York City in 2022, he said. Mrs. Sokola firmly refuted those claims.
Important evidence for the defense included journal bookings that Mrs. Sokola wrote in 2015. When she presented the magazine before the court, she was upset that the defense had revealed what she said that her anonymous banknotes were alcoholics.
However, the judge, Curtis Farber, ruled that the defense could refer to narrow fragments from the magazine that Mrs. Sokola had written in Polish.
The defense noted that Mrs. Sokola had written that two men had sexually abused her. When she interviewed, she said neither of them was Mr Weinstein. His name appeared in the magazine, she acknowledged, but next to it she had only written that he had broken her promises.
Mr. Cibella suggested that Mrs. Sokola commit a lie by accusing his client of sexual violence.
“You should be ashamed of yourself,” she replied.
The judge who supervises the trial
Justice Farber often has arguments between lawyers have to make it harmless. He had paid a price by Wednesday.
“Good morning. As you can see, I lost my voice,” he said jury members.
Prosecutors and lawyers of the defense have had to navigate a whole series of judgments of the judge about what they can ask witnesses and say to the jury. Because they have tested those limits, each party has confronted the other’s objections, so that the procedure often derailed.
Justice Farber has challenged a heated overhaul, while lawyers elevated their voice above each other to be heard. He is often forced to crawl in a corner of the courtroom with both parties for muted arguments from the jury’s hearing. And he had to admonish both parties when they wandered from his statements or questions he considered inappropriate.
During a particularly heated moment, the judge scribbled to find his hammer.
“I had to look for it,” he said later. “I hadn’t used it for 13 years.”
What to expect in the sixth week
Mrs. Mann is expected to testify this week and for the second time her accusations against Mr. Weinstein explains. Five years ago she said jury members that Mr Weinstein injected his penis with erection medication and raped her in a hotel room In Midtown Manhattan in 2013. She acknowledged that she had continued to see him and had consensual sex with him after the alleged attack.
This week’s public prosecutors will probably call experts who will witnesses why victims of rape and sexual violence will sometimes keep in touch with their attackers.
The prosecutor’s case will end after Mrs Mann’s testimony. The defense will then explain his case to the jury members.
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