Attorney Gloria Allred is asking an appellate court to delay the sentencing for convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein, which is set for Thursday in Los Angeles, or that her clients be allowed to speak at the hearing immediately.
A writ petition filed Tuesday argues three women involved in the case who are represented by Allred should be permitted to speak under California’s victim rights laws, though jurors did not convict Weinstein of sex crimes involving either woman. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench ruled on Feb. 16 that only the woman Weinstein was convicted of raping during his West Coast trial will be permitted to speak.
Identified in the trial as Jane Doe 1, the woman is a former model and actress who lives in Italy and testified that Weinstein raped her in her room at Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel in February 2013 when she was in Los Angeles for the L.A. Italia Film Festival. She’ll be in court Thursday to speak against Weinstein, said her lawyer, Dave Ring.
“Jane Doe 1 has waited over five years for the opportunity to speak at the sentencing hearing of her rapist, Harvey Weinstein. On her behalf, I hope the criminal sentencing is not delayed. Weinstein needs to be sentenced and shipped off to prison for the rest of his life without further delay,” Ring said in an email.
Allred wants the appellate court to stay the sentencing while they consider her petition, or to grant “extraordinary relief” and order Lench to let her clients speak on Thursday.
“If the Court of Appeal cannot resolve this matter in the short time remaining before the sentencing hearing, the only way to prevent irreparable harm to the Petitioners is to either order a delay in the sentencing hearing or to prohibit the sentencing hearing from proceeding until this Petition is resolved,” the petition states.
Allred’s clients include Jane Doe 2 as well as Jane Doe 5 and Natassia Malthe, a Norwegian model who testified as a so-called prior bad acts witness under California Code of Evidence 1108, which allows testimony about a defendant’s “past sexual misconduct, alleged and otherwise when they are currently on trial for a sex crime.”
Jane Doe 5 never testified, and Judge Lench ended up dismissing the four charges involving her at the request of prosecutors.
Jurors split 10-2 in favor of convicting Weinstein of sexual battery for Jane Doe 2, who has been identified publicly by her true name Lauren Young and was a witness in Weinstein’s New York trial in 2020. Jurors also deadlocked 8-4 in favor of convicting Weinstein of raping Jane Doe 4, who is California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.
Jurors acquitted Weinstein of felony sexual battery involving Jane Doe 3, who is Hollywood masseuse Juls Bindi, but deadlocked on a misdemeanor sexual battery charge.
Deliberations were lengthy, stretching nearly 10 full days, and Weinstein’s lawyers in a post-trial filing quoted jurors saying they would have voted differently on Jane Doe 1’s charges had they known of her sexual history involving another witness, film festival organizer Pascal Vicedomini.
Attorneys Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson made the argument in a motion for a new trial that Lench is to consider first Thursday morning. They’re also pointing to Jane Doe 1’s testimony that she would never sue Weinstein, when in fact she filed a lawsuit against him after trial.
Prosecutors Robert Thompson and Marlene Martinez opposed the new trial request, writing in a Feb.14 filing, “The defense has had a years-long obsession with Jane Doe 1’s sex life.”
They’re asking Lench to sentence Weinstein to 24 years in prison, on top of the 23 years he’s already serving out of New York state for first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape. Weinstein’s defense memo is sealed because it contains confidential medical information, Werksman said.
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