fFive years after Harvey Weinstein’s case shook Hollywood and sparked the #MeToo movement, a second sex crimes trial against the former producer begins Monday in Los Angeles. Weinstein faces four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual abuse; According to the indictment, he is said to have forced women to have oral sex and penetrated them with a foreign body. Weinstein faces a life sentence if convicted in California.
The 70-year-old man was found guilty of rape and sexual abuse in a trial in New York in March 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison. As in New York, Weinstein denies his guilt regarding the allegations in Los Angeles. He only had consensual sex. A lawyer for Weinstein said before the trial began that the allegations against his client were “weak and implausible” and would never have been brought up had Weinstein not been “the epicenter of the MeToo movement”.
The Los Angeles trial began Monday with jury selection; opening statements are likely to be held on October 24th. The alleged victims and witnesses are five women, according to whom the attacks took place between 2004 and 2013 in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills. Among them is 28-year-old actress Lauren Young, who testified against Weinstein at the New York trial. At the time, she reported Weinstein locked her in a hotel bathroom in 2013 and masturbated while he grabbed and pinched her breast. Eventually she was able to escape. Most of the attacks are said to have happened under the guise of business meetings in luxury hotels.
The trial is expected to take six to eight weeks in total. On November 18, the film She Said follows the story of the two New York Times journalists who exposed Weinstein’s past of rape and sexual molestation in 2017. Within a few weeks, around 90 women had made allegations of sexual violence against Weinstein. His lawyers had now failed with the application to postpone the proceedings because of the film’s release. Judges dismissed the argument that this might affect the jury.
