Hollywood mogul: Will Harvey Weinstein be released? – Wake-up call for the MeToo movement – Panorama – Schwarzwälder Bote
Hollywood mogul: Will Harvey Weinstein be released? – “Wake-up call” for the MeToo movement
By Benno Schwinghammer and Barbara Munker, dpa April 26, 2024 – 3:43 p.m
Harvey Weinstein (center l), film producer from the USA, leaves the courtroom in 2020. Photo: Richard Drew/AP/dpa
Allegations against Harvey Weinstein sparked the MeToo movement. Now a court overturns a historic rape verdict, but the film mogul remains in custody. His lawyers sense an opportunity.
New York/Los Angeles – The MeToo movement greeted Harvey Weinstein’s harsh sentence for sex crimes in March 2020 with cheers and relief. The former film mogul was sentenced to 23 years in prison by a New York judge for rape and sexual assault. “I think I’m going crazy,” said the movement’s founder, Tarana Burke (now 50), when she commented on the high sentence.
‘;
‘;
//probability
percentageRand = Math.floor(Math.random() * ((100 + 1) – 0) + 0);
isAdserver = (80<= percentageRand);
var advert;
//bei mobile 100% Ad Shop Werbung
var isMobile = device.mobile();
//zeige AdShop oder Traffective?
if (false || isAdserver || false || isMobile){
advert = adShop;
}else {
advert = traffective;
}
document.writeln(advert);
The activist also spoke out on Thursday after an appeals court in New York surprisingly overturned the former film mogul’s historic conviction. She was deeply shocked, Burke said at a press conference. But this is not a blow to the movement, but a “wake-up call” to action.
“We know what happened.”
Actress Ashley Judd (56), who first publicly described Weinstein’s assaults with other women in an investigative article in the New York Times in 2017, called for the fight against sexual violence to continue. The appeals court’s decision was “unfair to the victims,” she said. “We still live in our truth. And we know what happened.”
The decision of the seven judges in New York was extremely close at 4:3. The chairman of the court chamber certified that the then judge James Burke made serious procedural errors. In the trial, witnesses testified about previous allegations of abuse against Weinstein, but they were not brought to trial. Burke relied on these statements.
Attorney Lindsay Goldbrum, who represents several plaintiffs against Weinstein, described the judges’ new decision in New York as a “setback for the rule of law,” according to ABC News. With a man as powerful as Weinstein, the testimony in question was crucial in refuting the defense’s claim that the sexual encounters were consensual.
Weinstein and his legal team celebrated the spectacular verdict. According to his lawyer Arthur Aidala, Weinstein is “very grateful,” reported the New York Times. The 72-year-old is in a prison in northern New York state. According to Aidala, his client should now be relocated closer to the metropolis.
A new process?
He could come back to court and explain his side of things: “He’s been dying to tell his story from day one.” Aidala emphasized that his team “knew from the beginning that Weinstein did not get a fair trial.” According to his lawyers, Weinstein has serious health problems, including a heart condition.
Although Weinstein is not currently scheduled to be released because of his prison sentence in Los Angeles, the verdict in New York gives his lawyers impetus to also appeal on the US West Coast. Attorney Jennifer Bonjean could file a motion to do so before an appeals court in California as early as mid-May, Variety reported.
The Los Angeles district attorney’s office said it was “saddened” by the New York appeals judge’s ruling. In a statement, the authority also expressed confidence that Weinstein’s conviction would be upheld in California. Weinstein would then suffer the “serious consequences of his deplorable behavior.”
At the trial in Los Angeles in December 2022, a jury found Weinstein guilty of three counts of sex crimes, including rape. He was acquitted on one point, but there was no agreement on three other points. The allegations came from four women between 2004 and 2013. Among the plaintiffs was Jennifer Siebel, the current wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. Most of the attacks are said to have taken place in hotels in Beverly Hills.
According to information from the New York Times, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg must now decide whether to initiate new proceedings against Weinstein. A spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office told The Daily Beast that they would do “everything in our power to retry this case.”
Oral sex civil lawsuit
According to Variety, Ormond said in an interview that she is coming forward with her story because she believes “systemic change” is still needed. To this end, those who enable misconduct must also be held accountable. In her lawsuit, the actress is demanding undisclosed damages.
The allegations against Weinstein made by dozens of women sparked the MeToo movement in 2017. Those affected around the world also saw their own experiences reflected in those of the alleged Weinstein victims. They were heard publicly under the slogan “Me too” – with consequences for other influential people who were denounced, fired or indicted. Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault.
The producer’s deep fall was also brought up in the cinema. The film drama “She Said” by Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”) will celebrate its world premiere in autumn 2022. The German director told the story of New York Times reporters Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who put their Weinstein revelations on paper in 2017. The film shows how the reporters meet intimidated victims, visit Weinstein employees, spar with lawyers, are shadowed and discuss with superiors whether the story can be published.