Weinstein ‘spit on, demoralised, raped and abused’ women, says prosecution in blistering closing statement
Producer treated women as ‘complete disposables’, court hears
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Your support makes all the difference.Harvey Weinstein thought himself so powerful he could get away with treating women as “complete disposables”, the prosecution said on Friday as part of his criminal trial.
Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi-Orbon delivered blistering closing arguments as the proceedings drew to a close in New York City.
“The universe is run by me and they don’t get to complain when they get stepped on, spit on, demoralised and, yes, raped and abused by me — the king,” Illuzzi-Orbon said, mimicking Weinstein.
Using a TV monitor next to the jury box, the prosecutors displayed photos of Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra and five other accusers who also testified.
Illuzzi told jurors that aside from the more successful Sciorra, the others were “complete disposables. They were never going to be in his world.”
Illuzzi also showed a side-by-side comparison of Sciorra’s testimony about confronting Weinstein in the mid-1990s after he allegedly raped her and similar testimony by his rape accuser about how the mogul reacted when she told him she had a boyfriend in 2013.
“His eyes went black and I thought he was going to hit me right there,” Sciorra testified. With the click of a button, the rape accuser’s testimony popped up: “His eyes changed and he was not there. They were very black and he ripped me up.”
Weinstein, 67, is charged with raping a woman in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel room and forcibly performing oral sex on a different woman in 2006. He has pleaded not guilty and denied all allegations of non-consensual sex.
Other accusers including Sciorra testified as part of a prosecution effort to show he allegedly used the same tactics to victimise many women over the years.
Illuzzi’s closing comes a day after the defence offered an hours-long closing argument, with attorney Donna Rotunno accusing prosecutors of creating a world where “women are not responsible” for their actions.
The prosecution’s closing arguments are expected to wrap up by the end of Friday.
The jury of seven men and five women will then be instructed by the judge before deliberations can begin, most likely next week.
Additional reporting by agencies