Harvey Weinstein Refuses To Testify At His Own Trial - His Lawyers Rest Their Case

Source: NYDailyNews.com

On Tuesday, Harvey Weinstein’s legal defense team rested their case as they told the court and jury that the disgraced movie mogul wouldn’t be taking the stand to testify in defense of himself.

Page Six has learned that Damon Cheronis said to the Manhattan Supreme Court Justice, James Burke, that the rest of the team and Weinstein agreed on the producer not needing to testify. Burke asked Weinstein if his lawyer’s claims were accurate, and he responded, “yes.”

Reportedly, Harvey and his team believe the prosecution failed to present an adequate case against him, therefore, further testimony wasn’t needed. Juda Engelmayer, Weinstein’s spokesperson, claimed that Harvey had been meaning to tell his side of the story for a long time, but in the end, they realized it wasn’t necessary.

Over the last four days, the defense called on seven different witnesses to poke holes in the stories made by some of the accusers. The last witness to testify in Harvey’s favor was Thomas Richards Lozano, a friend of Jessica Mann.

Mr. Lozando said to jurors on Tuesday that Mann seemed very friendly to Weinstein on the day of the 18th of March, 2013, when Weinstein purportedly raped her. Additionally, jurors heard the testimony from other individuals such as Talita Maia, another friend of Mann.

Maia claims Mann once referred to Weinstein as her “spiritual soulmate.” Another witness called on by the defense was Paul Feldsher, a former Miramax consultant, who wrote a text message to Weinstein claiming that if any of the women involved were his daughter, he would’ve “beat the s**t” out of Weinstein.

Followers of the case know there have been six different women who told their stories of Harvey’s supposed transgressions. At the moment, the 67-year-old producer is facing off against charges of rape and predatory sexual assault.

One of which involves the aforementioned Mann, as well as Annabella Sciorra, and Mimi Haleyi. Weinstein has denied all of the claims and states that his relationships were always consensual.