Movies

Mel Gibson to testify against Harvey Weinstein

October 15, 2022

Mel Gibson could be called to testify against Harvey Weinstein in the producer’s upcoming rape trial in Los Angeles, a judge ruled on Friday.

Prosecutors want to call the actor to support allegations by Jane Doe 3, who claims Weinstein sexually assaulted her after she gave him a massage at his hotel in 2010. According to Assistant District Attorney Marlene Martinez, the wife later recounted the incident to Gibson. during a massage, and Gibson’s testimony would help support his claim.

Judge Lisa B. Lench allowed prosecutors to call Gibson to the stand. She also denied a defense request allowing her to question Gibson about racist and anti-Semitic statements he has made over the years. But the defense will be allowed to ask if Gibson has a grudge against Weinstein.

The defense argued that Gibson had ill will toward Weinstein since releasing “Passion of the Christ,” which was widely seen as playing on anti-Semitic themes. Weinstein later published a book, “Perspectives on the Passion of the Christ,” which challenged film.

“It created a feud between Mr. Gibson and Mr. Weinstein,” said Mark Werksman, Weinstein’s attorney.

When Werksman erroneously claimed the film won the Best Picture Oscar, Weinstein waved his arms no with a look of disdain.

Werksman also argued that Gibson is “now trying to rehabilitate his image by becoming a champion of the #MeToo movement.”

According to the lawyers, Gibson told investigators that Jane Doe 3 had a “post-traumatic stress reaction” when he brought up the name “Harvey” during a massage. Gibson was talking about Weinstein as part of a business deal. The woman stopped the massage, started crying and “gave the idea that Weinstein had sexually assaulted or groped her,” Werksman said.

Werksman argued he should be allowed to confront Gibson about his anti-Semitic tirade that followed his 2006 arrest, as well as an anti-Semitic comment he once allegedly made to Winona Ryder and other racist statements .

“How is it relevant if he is racist towards African Americans or Latinos?” asked Lench.

“It stems from his reluctance to give equal status to someone who is not of his ilk. He has a white supremacist view,” Werksman replied. “Someone with white supremacy values might not ‘have no problem committing perjury against a Jewish defendant.’

Lench eventually allowed the defense to question Gibson about any animosity toward Weinstein.

“I’m not going to allow you to get into his other comments that might point to his general demeanor about, as you say, ‘people not of his ilk,'” she said. “I’ll let you ask him whether or not there’s personal animosity between the two.”

The judge then allowed the defense to name a book, “Naked Massage,” that Jane Doe 3 was trying to publish with Weinstein’s help.

The court spent the first half of the day discussing Jane Doe 1, an Italian model who alleges Weinstein raped her at the Mr C. Hotel during the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival in February 2013.

The defense argued against the prosecution’s intention to use so-called “new complaint” witnesses for each of the five alleged victims and four “prior wrongdoing” witnesses.

Weinstein’s attorney Alan Jackson has proposed the prosecution limit its use of new complaints – statements made by a victim within a short time after a crime – to one per alleged victim, and none for witnesses. not charged.

“I don’t believe there’s any case law suggesting they can stack new complaint witnesses in multiples,” Jackson said, adding later. “It dilutes the evidence. I think it’s a waste of time. I think that’s inappropriate. I think that dilutes Mr. Weinstein’s due process.

Describing it as a “lawsuit against Energizer Bunny”, Jackson said the filing of new lawsuits had “much more harm than value”.

Jackson referenced calls Jane Doe 1 made to one of the witnesses, Lubov Smirnova, saying “something terrible happened.”

The “vague statement” is not a new complaint, Jackson said: “None of these has the specificity of giving rise to a new complaint. It is detrimental. »

Lench ruled that the two complaints filed with Smirnova were valid, in addition to a complaint filed with Jane Doe 1’s daughter, Maria C.

Lench will allow the defense to present photographs as evidence of Jane Doe 1 posted on social media, including since-deleted kickboxing photos that he says may call into question his ability to overcome or evade a threat. Although Lench agreed with Assistant District Attorney Paul Thompson that the interrogation line could perpetuate a rape myth.

Jackson later argued that the accusation that Jane Doe 1 “didn’t say anything about his scrotum or testicles in his first two interviews” was factually false. He cited three interviews with LAPD Detective Javier Vargas and Assistant District Attorney Lowrie Mendoza in which she repeatedly stated that she was forced to “suck his balls, put his testicles in his mouth.”

Weinstein has no testicles, Jackson said. Actress Jessica Mann testified in detail at her trial in New York about her “deformed” genitalia.

After three days of jury selection, the pool of potential jurors was narrowed to 160 on Friday.

Weinstein faces 11 sexual assault charges for alleged attacks on five women between 2004 and 2013. The disgraced tycoon is already serving a 23-year sentence after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault during his trial in New York in 2020. New York’s highest court has agreed to hear an appeal, but a conviction in Los Angeles – where he faces up to 140 years behind bars – could effectively ensure he is behind bars at life.