Harvey Weinstein trial opens, portraying ex-producer as predator
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein went on trial Wednesday in a landmark moment for the #MeToo movement, with prosecutors painting him as a sexual predator who used his movie-magnate stature to abuse women for decades, while his lawyers sought to discredit his accusers and portray them as willing participants.
Prosecutor Meghan Hast told the jury of seven men and five women that the former studio boss was “not just a titan in Hollywood — he was a rapist” who screamed at one victim that she “owed” him sex, used injections to induce an erection before an assault and pushed his way into the apartment of another woman and assaulted her.
“It is for his complete lack of empathy that he must be held accountable,” Hast said.
Weinstein lawyer Damon Cheronis countered by laying out plans to use friendly sounding emails, calendar entries and other evidence to call into question the accusers’ accounts of being attacked.
The opening of the rape trial more than two years after a barrage of allegations against Weinstein gave rise to #MeToo was seen by activists as a milestone in the global reckoning over sexual misconduct by powerful men. Weinstein’s lawyers, though, have portrayed the case as the result of a climate of accusation run amok.
Weinstein, 67, said little as he arrived at court. Asked whether he believed he would have a fair trial, he said yes: “I have good lawyers.”
Weinstein has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual. He could get life in prison if convicted.
The once-powerful and feared executive brought to the screen such Oscar-winning movies as “Pulp Fiction,” “The King’s Speech,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “Chicago” and hobnobbed with the elite in Hollywood and beyond, a point prosecutors made by showing jurors a photo of...