Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno says he’s only guilty of cheating on his wife
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Version 2 of 3. Lawyer said ex-producer is a sinner but not a criminal in 60 Minutes Australia interview as jury deliberated for third day Donna Rotunno, the controversial lead lawyer representing Harvey Weinstein at his rape trial in New York, has given further contentious remarks to the media, opining that the only thing the fallen movie mogul is guilty of is cheating on his wife. In an interview to be aired on Sunday on 60 Minutes Australia, Rotunno repeated a point that she has made in court, that the Pulp Fiction producer is a sinner but not a criminal. “Is Harvey guilty of committing sins? Sure, but that doesn’t make you a criminal,” she said in early clips of the interview released on Thursday. “A sin is cheating on your wife.” New of the 60 Minutes interview came on the third day of deliberations by the jury at the New York state supreme court. Five women and seven men are considering whether to find Weinstein guilty of five counts including two of predatory sexual assault, two of rape and one of a criminal sex act. Shortly before proceedings ended on Thursday the jury asked to be reread the transcript of the testimony of the Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, who alleges she was raped by Weinstein in 1993-94. Sciorra’s evidence is central to the charge of predatory sexual assault that implies sex crimes carried out on more than one woman. The jury’s request to hear the transcript on Sciorra suggests that the panel is still stuck on the issue of whether the actor’s account of being raped in her Gramercy Park apartment in the winter of 1993 to 1994 was credible. That could push a final verdict – or a mistrial if the jury is unable to agree – into next week. But it also indicates that Weinstein is still facing a possible conviction on the most serious charge. Predatory sexual assault carries a minimum sentence of 10 years and an upper sentence of life in prison. Rotunno’s interview will go out at a time that she has been placed on a court order by Judge James Burke not to have any communications with any media. But the defendant’s defense team insisted it was recorded with 60 Minutes on Friday, before the restriction came down. The Chicago-based lawyer, who specialises in representing men accused of sex crimes, was berated by the court on Tuesday for having published a Newsweek opinion piece in which she directly implored jurors to find her client innocent. In the 60 Minutes interview, Rotunno alludes to the dating app Tinder as a way of repeating her controversial view that women share responsibility for sexual assaults against them. She says: “When you go home with someone after swiping right, act like you have no idea what you may be consenting to seems ridiculous.” Sciorra’s allegation is too old to be charged on its own because of the statute of limitations, but it is a key component of the most serious charges that jurors are weighing in the closely watched #MeToo case. Weinstein, 67, is charged with five counts stemming from the allegations of Sciorra and two other women – an aspiring actor who says he raped her in March 2013 and a former film and TV production assistant, Miriam Haley, who says he forcibly performed oral sex on her in March 2006. Weinstein has maintained that any sexual contact was consensual. To convict Weinstein of the predatory sexual assault charge, jurors must agree on two things: that Weinstein raped Sciorra and that he committed one of the other charged offenses. On Tuesday, signaling their interest in Sciorra, jurors sent a note seeking clarification on why Weinstein wasn’t charged with other crimes stemming from her allegation, only to be told by the judge that they “must not speculate as to any other charges that are not before you”. The panel of seven men and five women finished Wednesday’s round of deliberations by revisiting actor Rosie Perez’s testimony about what she says Sciorra told her soon after the alleged rape. Perez said her friend Sciorra had told her at some point in 1993, her voice shaking on the phone, that something had happened to her: “I think it was rape.” Perez testified that months later, on a phone call from London, Sciorra said Weinstein was harassing her and she was scared. “I said: ‘He’s the one that raped you,”’ and they both began crying, Perez testified. “Please go to the police,” Perez said she told Sciorra. She said Sciorra responded: “I can’t – he’d destroy me.” The Associated Press has a policy of not publishing the names of people who allege sexual assault without their consent. It is withholding the name of the rape accuser because it isn’t clear whether she wishes to be identified publicly. |