NEW YORK: Harvey Weinstein lawyers claim in a filing that he didn’t have a fair trial when he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault by the Los Angeles court in 2022 and sentenced to sixteen years imprisonment. The brief filed on Friday with California’s Second District Court of Appeal comes six weeks after his ground-breaking #MeToo conviction and twenty-three-year jail term in New York were overturned by the state’s highest court.
According to the appeal, evidence about a sexual relationship between an Italian model and actor who Weinstein raped, and another director from a film festival that had them both in Los Angeles at the time of an alleged assault was wrongly kept out.
The judge should not have let jurors know about Weinstein’s previous, but now voided NY conviction, nor subject them to testimony from women regarding sexual assaults he had not been charged with, say his attorneys. Such testimonies formed the basis for quashing his conviction last year in New York where Manhattan prosecutors intend to retry him.
“The introduction of this excessive, cumulative, and remote evidence of prior sexual assaults’ simply signaled to the jury that the Defendant was a bad man who should be convicted of something irrespective of whether the prosecution proved its case,” it said in its submission papers.
Weinstein faced charges for sexually assaulting four women during his California trial but was only found guilty for one incident involving Evgeniya Chernyshova who testified that he showed up at her hotel room during LA Italia Film Festival back in 2013 without invitation.
The attorneys further assert that Judge Lisa B. Lench committed an error when she barred defense from bringing before the jury Facebook messages signed “Evgeniya Gennadievna” (Chernyshova) which show she had actual sex with Pascal Vicedomini, founder of The LA Italia Film Festival
Accordingly, those messages would have shown perjury on their part when they claimed that they were mere colleagues and friends, the brief argues. In addition to that, it would have also supported their arguments that the woman was not in her hotel room but she was with Vicedomini during the attack.
His sentencing followed a motion by Weinstein’s attorneys for a retrial on these same grounds which was denied by Lench.
Further, Weinstein has retained appellate lawyers including Jennifer Bonjean who is based in Chicago and whose appeal in Bill Cosby’s sexual assault case ultimately led to his permanent acquittal in Pennsylvania.
Jane Doe 1 was Chernyshova’s name during this procedure. The Associated Press does not typically identify people who claim they were sexually abused unless they come forward themselves like Chernyshova did after the case. She authorized her attorney to agree to AP using her name.
According to defence’s appeal brief, three jurors now openly regretted having appended their signatures to a unanimous guilty pronouncement.
In the filing it says, “the jurors confirmed that they did not believe the pair were romantically linked and explained that if they had access to such evidence it would have changed their calculus of whether any rape occurred.”
A lawsuit filed by Chernyshova shortly after the verdict, Weinstein’s attorneys claim; therefore, they should have been able to interrogate her as to whether or not she had financial motives in the outcome of the state case.
In April 2023 Weinstein’s defense lawyers filed a notice of appeal and then asked for several extensions before submitting Friday’s brief. The prosecution has until August 6 to file its response.
