LOS ANGELES –
Jurors within the trial of Harvey Weinstein might be allowed to listen to that Jennifer Siebel Newsom, spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, emailed the film magnate for recommendation about coping with the media amid a scandal involving Gavin Newsom two years after Weinstein allegedly raped and sexually assaulted her, a choose dominated Monday.
The choose granted slender permission to the defense to introduce proof of the email despatched to Weinstein in 2007, when Gavin Newsom was mayor of San Francisco and was relationship Siebel Newsom.
But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench forbid the defense from discussing the underlying problem behind the email — the revelation of an affair Newsom had had in 2005 with an aide. Lench known as it “too tangential in relation to this trial.”
Weinstein legal professional Mark Werksman argued adamantly for the inclusion of the main points.
“Of all stuff you’d assume a girl that’s raped by Harvey Weinstein would not do, it is ask him how you can cope with a intercourse scandal,” Werksman mentioned.
Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez, arguing for the prosecution, mentioned “I’m unsure how Mr. Werksman is aware of” how a rape sufferer would behave.
“They don’t react in a matter how somebody who has not been raped would assume,” Martinez mentioned.
Werksman argued that the contents of the email are important, saying that for Siebel Newsom and the opposite accusers within the trial, the ability dynamic with Weinstein was important.
“When her boyfriend the mayor seduces an underling’s spouse and will get scandalized over it,” she sides with the mayor,” he mentioned, and recommended it was important to Weinstein’s rights that the choose enable that line of questioning.
The choose recommended the legal professional was overstating the case by saying Weinstein’s due course of was at stake.
“Very dramatic, Mr. Werksman,” Lench mentioned.
Werksman replied, “Forgive the melodrama your honor.”
Weinstein is charged with raping Siebel Newsom at a Beverly Hills resort in 2004 or 2005.
In all, he’s charged with 11 counts of rape and sexual assault involving 5 girls. He is already serving a 23-year jail sentence for a rape and intercourse assault conviction in New York.
Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actor, started relationship Gavin Newsom in 2006, and married him in 2008. He was elected governor in 2018.
The choose additionally dominated that the prosecution may play for jurors a secret recording that one other forthcoming witness within the trial, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, fabricated from Weinstein along with New York police in 2015. In the recording, Weinstein apologized for his conduct in a earlier assembly, the place she mentioned he had touched her thigh and grabbed her breasts.
Police investigated the incident, however prosecutors introduced no prices — a choice that got here beneath scrutiny in 2017 when a wave of allegations in opposition to Weinstein gave gasoline to the .MeToo motion.
“It appears to me that to the extent that it constitutes an admission, that it’s admissible,” the choose mentioned.
Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson mentioned he may play only a quick excerpt from the recording, however after a dialogue with the defense, the 2 sides agreed he ought to play all 43 minutes of it.
Gutierrez, an Italian model, is one among 4 girls who’ve been allowed to testify on the trial about being sexually abused by Weinstein, although their allegations aren’t amongst these he’s charged with.
The Associated Press doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused except they’ve come ahead publicly, as Gutierrez has performed.
Siebel Newsom’s id was first reported by the Los Angeles Times, and her legal professional has informed the AP and different information retailers that she is among the many girls Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting who will testify through the trial.
After a day and a half of arguing motions on what proof might be heard through the trial, together with one through which actor-director Mel Gibson was accepted as a prosecution witness, the choose and jurors resumed jury choice within the afternoon.
Siebel Newsom got here up once more through the course of.
“What if I informed you that the governor’s spouse goes to be a type of witnesses?” Weinstein legal professional Alan Jackson requested the jury panel. “By the best way she might be.”
The jury panel already knew this from the juror questionnaire they stuffed out final week.
When requested if their opinion of the governor or his spouse would have an effect on their judgment, none mentioned it might.
At least 5 jurors mentioned they’d by no means heard of the .MeToo motion when requested by Thompson.
Views have been blended on the motion amongst those that had robust emotions.
“I consider within the female voice being outspoken,” one girl mentioned.
Another girl mentioned she did not have a lot respect for many who determined that “after 10 years, `oh this occurred to me too.”‘
“I believe they’re searching for their quarter-hour of fame,” she mentioned.