Mel Gibson will finally not be called to testify in the rape and sexual assault trial of harvey weinsteinwhich opened on October 10 in Los Angeles, reported US media, including variety. No explanation was provided for the absence of the actor and director.
Prosecutors wanted to call the actor to the stand, to support the allegations of one of the accusers, who is testifying anonymously under the name “Jane Doe.” The young woman accuses Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 2010, after she gave him a massage at a hotel. She later recounted the incident to Mel Gibson, during a massage.
Not a reliable witness?
Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers had advised against appealing the actor and director, citing his racist and anti-Semitic outbursts, which had caused controversy in the 2000s. Lawyers had also specified that Gibson, whose rift with Weinstein dates back to the departure of Passion of Christhe would not have been a reliable witness.
“A person with white supremacist values would have no problem committing perjury for [mettre à mal] a Jewish defendant,” Weinstein’s attorney, Mark Werksman, said last month. An argument dismissed, as the court ruled it irrelevant to Weinstein’s case.
facing eleven accounts
Weinstein, 70, has already been convicted in New York, where he has been serving a 23-year prison sentence for sexual assault and rape since 2020. This new trial coincides almost to the day with the fifth anniversary of the #MeToo movementtriggered by revelations about his behavior as a sexual predator.
In Los Angeles, he faces eleven counts for alleged acts committed against five women at hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013. If convicted, Harvey Weinstein, who has pleaded not guilty to all charges, could be sentenced to more than 100 additional charges. years behind bars.
Source: BFM TV
