Disgraced Hollywood mogul Weinstein seeks to toss sex crimes case over 'intimate' emails

 

NEW YORK: Movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers asked a New York judge on Friday to dismiss rape and sexual assault charges against him, releasing emails between one of his accusers and Weinstein they said were not shown to the grand jury that indicted him.

The demand of the fallen Hollywood mogul's lawyers was based on a series of technicalities, apart from the emails.

Weinstein has denied having non-consensual sex with anyone following accusations by more than 70 women — mostly young actresses and other women employed in the movie business — of sexual misconduct, including rape, dating back decades.

In a motion filed in New York state court in Manhattan, Weinstein’s lawyers said the emails showed “a long-term, consensual, intimate relationship” between Weinstein and an unnamed woman who has accused him of raping her in 2013.

In one of the dozens of "intimate" emails between the disgraced Hollywood tycoon and his alleged rape victim, the latter said: "I love you."

Weinstein’s lawyers said they meant “not to ignore that rape can occur in relationships”, but that prosecutors should have shown the grand jurors the emails in order for them to make an “informed decision”.

The woman and Weinstein communicated over a four-year period after the date she said he raped her, Weinstein’s lawyers said.

The emails

Messages sent in the weeks, months and even years after the alleged 2013 rape showed that Weinstein and the woman were in a "long-term, consensual, intimate relationship" that never once referred to an assault, Brafman claimed.

"Hope you are well and call me anytime, always good to hear your voice," she allegedly wrote to him in August 2013, five months after the claimed assault.

"I was so happy you saw me today!" the woman apparently said that October. In January 2014, the defence quoted her as writing: "Your [sic] the one who makes it look good with your smile and beautiful eyes!!"

Some of the messages appeared even more intimate. "There is no one else I would enjoy catching up with that understands me quite like you," she purportedly wrote to Weinstein in July 2014.

In another exchange, she wrote to say: "Just had u cross my mind and thought u would send a hello."

When Weinstein apparently replied: "Love to cross your mind it's my favorite exercise," she answered: "Lol that made me laugh so hard."

"I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call. :)," she apparently emailed Weinstein in February 2017.

Messages appeared to show her arranging to meet up with Weinstein, looking forward to introducing him to her mother, making contact when she needed help securing a job and seeking comfort when her father was ill, Brafman said.

Brafman claims 'existence of exculpatory evidence'

A lawyer or representative for the woman was not immediately known to request comment on the motion.

A spokesman for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, who is prosecuting the case, declined to comment on the motion.

The case against Weinstein in Manhattan involves three women. The 66-year-old has pleaded not guilty to six counts allegedly committed against three women in 2004, 2006, and 2013, and is free on $1-million bail.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for September 20.

Weinstein lawyer Benjamin Brafman, one of America's most-celebrated defence attorneys who helped former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn escape criminal prosecution for alleged sexual assault in 2011, said in a statement that the motions “reveal the existence of exculpatory evidence”.

The defence lawyer accused Vance, the Manhattan DA, of acting in haste, caving under "unprecedented" pressure to indict Weinstein, having been investigated for failing to prosecute him for an alleged groping incident in 2015.

'Far more serious charges'

Brafman said the dozens of emails should not have been kept from the grand jury that returned the indictments against the former producer.

"The district attorney's failure to fairly present an accurate and complete presentation of the evidence infected the entire grand jury proceeding and subsequent indictment," Brafman argued.

The accusations against Weinstein back in October led to the #MeToo movement in which hundreds of women publicly accused powerful men in business, politics, and entertainment of sexual harassment and abuse.

He risks being jailed for life if put on trial and convicted of predatory sexual assault, the most serious charge against him.

The #MeToo campaigners hope that the alleged sexual predator — whom nearly 100 women have publicly accused of sexual misconduct — will be put on trial, convicted, and sent to prison.

Weinstein’s lawyers said charges against Weinstein in New York involving two other women were flawed and must be dismissed as well. One involves a former actress who said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him in 2004. The other is a former production assistant who said he performed oral sex on her against her will in 2006.

Brafman sought to undermine the allegation of forced oral sex 14 years ago, saying that the alleged victim in that instance does not remember when it happened, only "sometime" between June and September of that year.

"Mr Weinstein categorically denies that he had non-consensual sex with any person, and specifically the three accusers in the pending indictment," he wrote in the 159-page filing, that included 30 exhibits of emails.

Prosecutors failed to give Weinstein adequate advance notice that they were presenting the “far more serious charges” to the grand jury of the allegation from 2006, his lawyers said.

The former production assistant’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said in response to Weinstein’s motion to dismiss that the grand jury “would not have indicted him if they did not find the testimony that they heard credible”.

A lawyer or representative for the former actress was not immediately known to request comment.

As accusations against Weinstein mounted, his career imploded, he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and Weinstein Co — his company — fired him and filed for bankruptcy.

Through his company and Miramax, Weinstein won plaudits and awards for movies including Shakespeare in Love, Pulp Fiction, and The King’s Speech.