Harvey Weinstein can go free

On Monday, 5 in November, Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers petitioned to be given the opportunity to question the former chief investigator in charge of the case and the head of the department for combating sexual offenses in New York in court.

Фото: Depositphotos

Popular British newspaper Daily Mail He gives a detailed account of the arguments of the lawyers of the former Hollywood producer, who claim that the chief investigator “trained witnesses” and that one of the witnesses wanted to meet him again after the alleged rape. Translation provides Inosmi.ru.

Media magnate lawyer Benjamin Brafman claims that this case was “irreparably damaged” due to police brutality, and therefore all charges must be removed.

The lawyers of the former Hollywood producer decided to bet on detective Nicholas Di Godio - whose alleged attempts to “force witnesses” forced the prosecutor’s office to drop some of the charges in October - now that they have again begun to seek to remove the remaining charges.

In the case file, Weinstein's lawyers called Di Godio a detective who regularly interfered, who was “unusually fixated on hiding the truth,” and offered to hold a special court hearing in order to “establish the extent of arbitrariness.”

They also asked Michael Osgood, the head of the department for combating sexual offenses, to be brought to court because, in his own words, he and Di Godio interrogated all potential witnesses together.

Manhattan Prosecutor's Office declined to comment.

The New York Police Department reiterated in a statement that “the evidence against Mr. Weinstein is strong and convincing,” and that he will continue to work with the prosecutor’s office “to achieve justice for those brave victims of violence who bravely made” the charges.

The trade union defending the interests of Di Godio did not respond to our request to comment on the situation. But earlier, his representatives stated that Di Godio "was simply trying to get to the bottom of the truth" and that he was not at all trying to influence the course of the investigation.

Three of the five remaining charges against Weinstein are based on allegations that in March 2013, he raped a woman in a hotel room. But these charges, too, bear the imprint of doubt that Di Godio conducted this case properly. According to two other charges, Weinstein forced a woman to have oral sex with him in 2006 in his apartment in Manhattan.

In October, the prosecutor’s office dropped Weinstein’s sixth charge - according to which Weinstein forced Lucia Evans to take oral sex with him in 2004, when she was a college student and aspiring actress, after the information that DiGodio persuaded her friend to remain silent when she appeared questioned the credibility of the charges.

Deputy District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon (Joan Illuzzi-Orbon) told Weinstein's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, in a letter from October 11 that Di Godio told the witness that "less is better than more."

A few days later, Illuzzi-Orbon reported that Di Godio advised one of the victims, who allegedly survived the sexual assault in 2013, to delete some of the data on her mobile phones before handing them over to the prosecutor's office. According to her, this data had nothing to do with Weinstein, and that the woman did not delete anything.

66-year-old Weinstein denies all charges of sexual intercourse without mutual consent.

In his address, Weinstein’s lawyers also indicated that the prosecutor’s office did not provide the grand jury, which formally accused him, of the evidence that, according to lawyers, indicates that the remaining charges are unfounded.

Weinstein's lawyers again referred to the warm e-mails that, according to them, the rape victim in 2013 sent to the producer after the alleged rape. In them, she offered Weinstein to meet again, asked him for advice and wrote that no one "does not understand me the way you are."

Referring to the new data, Weinstein's lawyers noted that the victim of sexual violence in 2006 also maintained contact with him after the day when, as she informed the authorities, she was raped. About seven months later, this woman sent a text message to the producer, inviting him to meet again.

“[The prosecution witnesses] had the audacity to contact [Weinstein] and try to drag him into social relations after, according to their current testimony, he brutally raped them,” the producer’s lawyers wrote. “The incredible hypocrisy of the indictment is simply amazing.”

Gloria Olred, a lawyer for a woman who experienced sexual violence in 2006, wrote in an e-mail message that Weinstein’s attorney’s request was “full of unconfirmed speculation” that “completely contradicts the facts”.

“If they are guessing about my client, I suppose they have no facts that could justify their client, Mr. Weinstein,” said Allred. “Mr. Weinstein’s protection against my client is obviously built on quicksand, and not on a solid factual basis.”

Olred's client, a former assistant producer, publicly brought her accusations last October, but has since insisted that she wants to protect her privacy, and asked to keep her name secret.

Weinstein’s lawyers insist that by removing the accusation related to Evans from their client, the prosecutor’s office has shaken the foundations of another accusation - serious sexual assault - which, if found guilty, could lead to a prison sentence of life.

Charges against Harvey Weinstein

Severe sexual assault (A-II class offense) - from 10 years in prison to life imprisonment.

A person is found guilty of committing violent acts of a sexual nature if:

1. During the commission of a crime or escape from the crime scene, this person:

a) has caused the victim of a crime serious bodily harm; or

b) applied or threatened to use any dangerous instrument; or

2. This person committed acts of first-degree rape, criminal acts of a sexual nature of the first degree, or sexual harassment with aggravating circumstances of the first degree.

First-degree rape (class B offense) - from 5 to 25 years in prison, and a fine of up to 5 thousand dollars.

A person is found guilty of rape of the first degree if he has sex with another person:

1. By coercion under the threat of force; or

2. With a person who cannot give consent because of physical helplessness; or

3. With a person under the age of 11; or

4. With a person under the age of 13, while the perpetrator is 18 or more.

Rape of the third degree (grave crime class E) - up to 4 years in prison, as well as a fine of 5 thousand dollars.

A person is convicted of rape of the third degree if:

1. She has sex with another person who cannot give her consent for reasons other than age less than 17; or

2. Having reached the age of 21, this person has sex with another person who has not reached 17 years; or

3. A person has sexual contact with another person without the consent of the latter, when the lack of consent is due to other reasons than the inability to give such consent.

* Charge removed *

Criminal acts of a sexual nature of the first degree (a grave crime of class B) - up to 25 years in prison

A person is found guilty of committing criminal acts of a sexual nature of the first degree if he enters into oral or anal sexual contact with another person:

1. By coercion under the threat of force; or

2. With a person who cannot give consent because of physical helplessness; or

3. With a person under the age of 11; or

4. With a person under the age of 13, while the perpetrator is 18 or more.

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