Harvey Weinstein is convicted of 3 of 7 charges, including rape, in his Los Angeles sexual assault trial
December 20, 2022 Comments Off on Harvey Weinstein is convicted of 3 of 7 charges, including rape, in his Los Angeles sexual assault trial
By Nouran Salahieh and Cheri Mossburg, CNN
Mon December 19, 2022
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was found guilty Monday of rape and sexual assault against one of four women he was accused of assaulting in Los Angeles – a significant conviction in the second trial of a man at the center of allegations that fueled the global #MeToo movement.
Weinstein, who prosecutors said used his Hollywood influence to lure women into private meetings and assault them, was found guilty of three of seven charges against him.
After weeks of emotional testimony and 10 days of deliberations, jurors in Los Angeles also acquitted Weinstein of one count of sexual battery by restraint against a massage therapist in a hotel room in 2010. They were a hung jury on one count of sexual battery by restraint, one count of forcible oral copulation and one count of rape related to two other women – including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and first partner to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The three charges Weinstein was convicted of – rape, sexual penetration by foreign object and forcible oral copulation – were all tied to one of his accusers, a model and actress who testified the movie mogul assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel room in February 2013.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe 1 in court, was the first to testify in the trial.
“Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013. I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal. Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand. But I knew I had to see this through the end, and I did… I hope Harvey Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime,” Jane Doe 1 said in a statement released through her attorney.
Weinstein had pleaded not guilty to all seven charges against him.
“Harvey is obviously disappointed, however hopefully because with this particular accuser there are good ground to appeal based on time and location of alleged events,” Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said in a statement. “He is grateful the jury took their time to deliberate on the other counts and he is prepared to continue fighting for his innocence.”
Weinstein faces a possible sentence of 24 years in prison for the Los Angeles conviction, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. The once-powerful film producer is already serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 New York rape conviction.
Jurors will return to court Tuesday to consider aggravating factors to help determine the outcome of Weinstein’s sentencing hearing, according to the DA’s office.
Elizabeth Fegan, an attorney representing Siebel Newsom, who was identified in court as Jane Doe 4, said they were disappointed that the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charges related to her client.
“My client, Jane Doe 4, shared her story not with an expectation to testify but to support all the survivors who bravely came forward. While we are heartened that the jury found Weinstein guilty on some of the counts, we are disappointed that the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on Jane Doe 4. She will continue to fight for all women and all survivors of abuse against a system that permits the victim to be shamed and re-traumatized in the name of justice,” Fegan said in a statement to CNN….
https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/us/harvey-weinstein-trial-deliberations-los-angeles-monday/index.html
Bombshell 400-page report finds Southern Baptist leaders routinely silenced sexual abuse survivors
May 24, 2022 Comments Off on Bombshell 400-page report finds Southern Baptist leaders routinely silenced sexual abuse survivors
Bombshell 400-page report finds Southern Baptist leaders routinely silenced sexual abuse survivors
Robert Downen, John Tedesco Staff writers May 22, 2022
For 20 years, leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention — including a former president now accused of sexual assault — routinely silenced and disparaged sexual abuse survivors, ignored calls for policies to stop predators, and dismissed reforms that they privately said could protect children but might cost the SBC money if abuse victims later sued.
Those are just a few findings of a bombshell, third-party investigation into decades of alleged misconduct by Southern Baptist leaders that was released Sunday, nearly a year after 15,000 SBC church delegates demanded their executive committee turn over confidential documents and communications as part of an independent review of abuse reports that were purportedly mishandled or concealed since 2000. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/investigations/article/Bombshell-400-page-report-finds-Southern-Baptist-17190816.php
Cosby released from prison, Geraldo Rivera Praises Bill Cosby’s Release, Bette Midler’s allegation of being groped by Geraldo
July 6, 2021 Comments Off on Cosby released from prison, Geraldo Rivera Praises Bill Cosby’s Release, Bette Midler’s allegation of being groped by Geraldo
Cosby released from prison
Geraldo Rivera Praises Bill Cosby’s Release
Bette Midler’s allegation of being groped by Geraldo
Bill Cosby is a free man after Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturns sex assault conviction
By Ray Sanchez, Sonia Moghe and Kristina Sgueglia, CNN
June 30, 2021
Bill Cosby was released from prison Wednesday after Pennsylvania’s highest court overturned his sexual assault conviction, saying the disgraced actor’s due process rights were violated.
The stunning decision in the case of the man once known as “America’s Dad” reverses the first high-profile celebrity criminal trial of the #MeToo era.
The panel of Pennsylvania State Supreme Court judges said in their opinion that a former Montgomery County district attorney’s decision to not prosecute Cosby in 2005 in return for his deposition in a civil case was ultimately used against him at trial.
“In light of these circumstances, the subsequent decision by successor D.A.s to prosecute Cosby violated Cosby’s due process rights,” the judges wrote.Cosby was sentenced in 2018 to 3 to 10 years in a state prison for drugging and sexually assaulting Andrea Constand at his home in 2004….
For victims who sought closure in the case’s resolution, the ruling represented “a slap in the face” in the words of Lisa Bloom, the attorney for three accusers.
Bloom said she thinks it could be “a very hard day” for all the women who accused him of sexual assault….
“My hope is that this decision will not dampen the reporting of sexual assaults by victims. Prosecutors in my office will continue to follow the evidence wherever and to whomever it leads. We still believe that no one is above the law — including those who are rich, famous and powerful.”
Constand and her attorneys said the decision to vacate Cosby’s conviction is disappointing.
“Today’s majority decision regarding Bill Cosby is not only disappointing but of concern in that it may discourage those who seek justice for sexual assault in the criminal justice system from reporting or participating in the prosecution of the assailant or may force a victim to choose between filing either a criminal or civil action,” Constand and her attorneys said in a statement.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/30/us/bill-cosby-to-be-released/index.html
Geraldo Rivera Praises Bill Cosby’s Release, Says Harvey Weinstein ‘Unjustly Convicted’
Lindsey Ellefson Thu, July 1, 2021
Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera said Wednesday that he supported Bill Cosby’s release from prison, decrying what he called the “mob justice” of the comedian’s 2018 conviction on sexual assault charges.
While many expressed outrage at Cosby’s release and the overturning of his conviction, Rivera said that the comic’s prosecution “never should have happened” and asked: “How is he going to get back the two years that he has lost now?” He also suggested that Harvey Weinstein was “unjustly convicted” and that the disgraced mogul might find similar recourse in appealing his own 2020 conviction on rape charges in New York.
John Roberts, who was anchoring “America Reports” at the time of Rivera’s comments, responded, “You say, ‘How is he going to get back the two years that he has lost while being in prison?’ How will the 58 women who say he did to them what they say he did ever get back any sense of justice here, and any sense of ever being whole again?”….
Cosby’s case is one of the most high profile of the #MeToo era. He was convicted in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a former Temple University employee, Andrea Constand, at his home in 2004. Though the case involves just one woman, at least 60 women have come forward to accuse the former entertainer of sexual assault….https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/geraldo-rivera-praises-bill-cosby-130136897.html
Geraldo Rivera Apologizes to Bette Midler for “Embarrassing Her All Those Years Ago”
“Geraldo may have apologized for his tweets supporting Matt Lauer, but he has yet to apologize for this.” By Hilary Weaver November 30, 2017
Geraldo Rivera tweeted an apology to Bette Midler Friday for an alleged incident of inappropriate sexual behavior that she described in a resurfaced 1991 interview with Barbara Walters….
On Wednesday, Fox News correspondent Geraldo Rivera posted a series of tweets in which he defended Matt Lauer, who had been fired from the Today show following reports that Lauer had displayed “inappropriate sexual behavior in the workplace.” Rivera later apologized for his defense of Lauer, but his apology was too little, too late for Bette Midler who, in her own tweet, reminded her followers of an incident she says she experienced with Rivera years ago….
“O.K., get in a little trouble,” Midler said. “Well, Geraldo and his producer came to do an interview with me . . . This is when he was very sort of hot. He and his producer left the crew in the other room. They pushed me into my bathroom, they broke two poppers and pushed them under my nose, and proceeded to grope me . . . I did not offer myself up on the altar of Geraldo Rivera. He was unseemly. His behavior was unseemly.”…
https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2017/11/bette-midler-speaks-out-against-geraldo-rivera
All the Women Who Have Spoken Out Against Joe Biden, Former Staffer Says He Sexually Assaulted Her
April 9, 2020 Comments Off on All the Women Who Have Spoken Out Against Joe Biden, Former Staffer Says He Sexually Assaulted Her
Tara Reade, the former staffer in Joe Biden’s Senate office who has come forward with allegations that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993….Reade told journalist Katie Halper in an interview published Tuesday that Biden repeatedly touched her without her consent and sexually assaulted her. Reade approached the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund in January looking for assistance, but was reportedly told the fund could not help her because Biden is a candidate for federal office, and pursuing a case could jeopardize the fund’s nonprofit status. Reade says she learned from The Intercept report that the public relations firm representing Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund is SKDKnickerbocker, whose managing director, Anita Dunn, is top adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign.
Published on Tuesday, April 07, 2020 by Common Dreams
Yes, we are in the middle of a contentious primary season and a presidential election with much on the line. And, yes, allegations of sexual assault or rape against the current leader in the Democratic primaries are inconvenient. But rape is even more inconvenient.
by Anthony Zenkus
Ahead of former vice-president Joe Biden’s expected 2020 presidential bid, women are speaking out about their personal interactions with him — alleging he physically touched them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable.
Weinstein gets 23 years in sentence hailed by accusers, Stop Misinformation Against Survivors of Trauma
March 13, 2020 Comments Off on Weinstein gets 23 years in sentence hailed by accusers, Stop Misinformation Against Survivors of Trauma
Weinstein gets 23 years in sentence hailed by accusers
By MICHAEL R. SISAK, TOM HAYS and JENNIFER PELTZ March 11, 2020
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years in prison after breaking his courtroom silence with a rambling plea for mercy in which he professed to be “totally confused” by the #MeToo movement that spelled the Hollywood producer’s downfall.
His accusers — those who testified against him and many others who have spoken out elsewhere against the former Hollywood mogul — hailed the near-maximum punishment for his rape and criminal sex act convictions as long overdue.
The 67-year-old Weinstein, who arrived at the courthouse Wednesday in a wheelchair and was taken to a hospital after complaining of chest pains hours after the court hearing, could spend the rest of his life behind bars.
He was convicted last month of raping a once-aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on former TV and film production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006. He faced a minimum of five years and a maximum of 29 years in prison.
The conviction marked the first criminal fallout from a raft of allegations that the Oscar-winning movie producer used his clout to lure women, sexually assault or harass them and then silence them.
“Although this is a first conviction, this is not a first offense,” Judge James Burke said in imposing the sentence….
Both of the women Weinstein was convicted of assaulting told the court about the damage he did to them, and the empowerment they felt when testifying against him.
“Rape is not just one moment of penetration. It is forever,” said the 2013 rape accuser, who recalled a moment during the trial when she left the witness stand in tears and then could be heard screaming from an adjacent room.
It was, she said, “the day my voice came back to its full power,” she said.
Asked later about her reaction after the sentence, she wiped her eyes, raised her arm and nodded her head.
Haleyi broke down in tears as she told the court the 2006 attack scarred her deeply and “stripped me of my dignity as a woman.” The encounter made her rethink her career in the entertainment business and left her feeling afraid of retaliation, she said….
Years of whispers about Weinstein’s alleged behavior burst into public view in The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017. In the aftermath, more than 90 women, including Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and other actresses, publicly accused Weinstein of sexual assault and sexual harassment. The takedown energized the #MeToo movement for speaking up about sexual assault….
Weinstein was convicted on two counts: criminal sex act and rape in the third degree. He was acquitted of the more serious charges against him of first-degree rape and two counts of predatory sexual assault.
Now that Weinstein has been sentenced, his lawyers can move forward with a promised appeal. He also faces rape and sexual assault charges in California, where Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey tweeted Wednesday that her office was working on extraditing him. No arraignment date has yet been set.
https://apnews.com/310554f06f644d41e1c0513600099ce1
Petition: Stop Misinformation Against Survivors of Trauma and Their Helpers by The Satanic Temple’s Grey Faction
https://www.change.org/p/trauma-survivors-and-their-helpers-stop-attacks-on-survivors-of-trauma-by-the-satanic-temple-s-grey-faction/
http://chng.it/6H6sfxqR
Harvey Weinstein found guilty on 2 counts, not guilty on more serious charges
February 24, 2020 § Leave a comment
Harvey Weinstein found guilty on 2 counts, not guilty on more serious charges
Harvey Weinstein was on trial for rape in Manhattan.
By Chris Francescani and Alexandra Svokos February 24, 2020
The jury reached a verdict in the New York rape trial of Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced former Hollywood mega-producer.
Weinstein, 67, was found guilty of criminal sexual assault and of rape in the third degree. He was found not guilty of the more serious charges of predatory sexual assault and of rape in the first degree….
The criminal sexual assault charge came from Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi, who was a production assistant and said that he assaulted her in 2006. That charge came with sentencing guidelines of five to 25 years.
The charge of rape in the third degree came from another, unnamed accuser, and came with sentencing guidelines of probation up to four years….
Weinstein was charged with raping one woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performing a forcible sex act on a different woman, who has since identified herself as Haleyi, in 2006. He pleaded not guilty to all charges and claims any sexual encounters were cosensual.
In addition to the two women behind those charges, four others testified in support of prosecutors’ efforts to demonstrate a pattern of sexual predation….
https://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/jury-reaches-verdict-harvey-weinstein-case/story?id=69175544
Survivors of Epstein’s Abuse – she spent summer at Mar-a-Lago Trump’s resort, Rep Jim Jordan denies ignored report – told “directly about sexual misconduct by Strauss,” Child Abuse WhatsApp group, Why child abuse survivors keep and break silence – 24 years to reveal secret
December 11, 2019 § Leave a comment
– ‘This Is Not Our Shame’: Five Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s Abuse on Trauma, Justice, and Sisterhood “She was introduced to the financier Jeffrey Epstein through Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the British media titan Robert Maxwell. (Epstein, charged with sex trafficking girls, some just 14 or 15, reportedly committed suicide in jail over the summer.) Giuffre was 16 at the time, spending her summer as an attendant at the spa at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s resort. According to the deposition, Maxwell told Giuffre she wanted to hire her as a masseuse.”
– Members of child abuse WhatsApp group arrested in 11 countries
– Rape and sexual assault
– Rep. Jim Jordan denies he ignored report that Ohio State doctor performed sex act in shower “misconduct by Strauss, who was found by independent investigators to have sexually abused 177 male students over two decades… second person to say he told Jordan directly about sexual misconduct by Strauss “
Members of child abuse WhatsApp group arrested in 11 countries
10 December 2019
Spanish police say 33 people have been arrested globally in connection with a WhatsApp group for images of child sex abuse and other violent content.
The many “extreme” images shared in the group had been “normalised by most of its members”, the force said.
Arrests were made in 11 different countries across three continents, but the majority – 17 – were in Spain.
Many of those arrested or being investigated in Spain are themselves under 18, including a 15-year-old boy.
In Uruguay, police arrested two people – one of whom was a mother who abused her daughter and sent images of this to the group.
In another case, a 29-year-old man was arrested for not only downloading the images, but also encouraging other group members to make contact with young girls – particularly migrants who would be unlikely to go to the police.
What did the group share?
In a statement, the police said the group shared “paedophilic content, sometimes of extreme severity, together with other content that was legal but was not suitable for minors because of their extreme nature”.
Some group members had even created “stickers” – small digital images that are easily shared, similar to emojis – of children being abused….
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-50737387
‘This Is Not Our Shame’: Five Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s Abuse on Trauma, Justice, and Sisterhood
Stories about Epstein’s accusers tend to have their own lexicon, filled with phrases designed to shame and titillate—sex slave, victim, troubled. With the world watching, Virginia Giuffre, Teresa Helm, Rachel Benavidez, Marijke Chartouni, and Sarah Ransome want to reframe the narrative—and reclaim their power.
By Mattie Kahn
December 10, 2019
Giuffre first came forward in 2015 and her account is best known; in a sworn deposition taken in 2016, she said she was introduced to the financier Jeffrey Epstein through Ghislaine Maxwell, daughter of the British media titan Robert Maxwell. (Epstein, charged with sex trafficking girls, some just 14 or 15, reportedly committed suicide in jail over the summer.) Giuffre was 16 at the time, spending her summer as an attendant at the spa at Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s resort. According to the deposition, Maxwell told Giuffre she wanted to hire her as a masseuse. She promised Giuffre travel and an education. Giuffre accepted the offer. The abuse, she recalls, started soon after, with Epstein demanding sexual services for himself and some of his friends.
In the deposition Giuffre said, “My whole life revolved around just pleasing these men and keeping Ghislaine [Maxwell] and Jeffrey [Epstein] happy. Their whole entire lives revolved around sex.” (Maxwell has denied the allegations.)….
https://www.glamour.com/story/jeffrey-epstein-survivors-roundtable
Rep. Jim Jordan denies he ignored report that Ohio State doctor performed sex act in shower
Jordan continues to insist he knew nothing about what Dr. Richard Strauss did to the male athletes and others.
Nov. 12, 2019, By Corky Siemaszko
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, has dismissed as “ridiculous” a claim by a professional referee that he told the congressman directly that Dr. Richard Strauss had masturbated in front of him in a shower at Ohio State University.
Jordan addressed the allegation in an interview with his hometown newspaper Monday, just days after NBC News reported that the referee claimed in a lawsuit that the congressman, who was then an assistant wrestling coach, barely blinked when he described his encounter with the sexual predator.
“Yeah, that’s Strauss,” Jordan and the head wrestling coach replied dismissively, according to the lawsuit, which does not name Jordan as a defendant….
NBC News has reached out for the comment to the referee, who is a respected member of Ohio’s wrestling community and who has known Jordan for decades.
Identified in the court papers as John Doe 42, his allegation about Jordan’s alleged indifference was part of the lawsuit filed last week by 43 survivors against Ohio State. It charged the university’s “ingrained culture of institutional indifference” enabled Strauss to sexually abuse well over 100 students and athletes from a half-dozen sports over two decades.
The referee is the second person to say he told Jordan directly about sexual misconduct by Strauss, who was found by independent investigators to have sexually abused 177 male students over two decades.
Other former Ohio State wrestlers have said Jordan had to have known about Strauss because he shared a locker room with them and took part in discussions about the doctor, who died in 2005.
Jordan has repeatedly denied knowing anything about what Strauss did to the wrestlers and has called allegations that he turned a blind eye to the abuse politically motivated.
Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson said last week that the university “has led the effort to investigate and expose the misdeeds of Richard Strauss and the systemic failures to respond, and the university is committed to a fair resolution….
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/rep-jim-jordan-denies-he-ignored-report-ohio-state-doctor-n1080736
Rape and sexual assault
‘You grow up hating yourself’: why child abuse survivors keep – and break – their silence
The average victim takes 24 years to reveal their secret and disclosure is often the key to recovery
Earlier this year Erin Delaney revealed on Facebook a secret she’d kept from almost everyone.
As a child she suffered physical and emotional abuse and severe neglect. The neglect had significant consequences, including a fractured skull from falling – which was only picked up when, after she vomited at school the next day, a member of her extended family intervened and took her to hospital.
The emotional abuse included both parents telling her at different times that the other was dead, or that they weren’t her real parents; the physical abuse – the hitting, the kicking – depended on their drug use and moods.
“It was,” the 36-year-old Sydneysider says now, “a challenging journey through life. I never felt safe and I never felt grounded. You grow up hating yourself and thinking you caused it and you deserve it….
Delaney, who suffers from complex post-traumatic stress disorder, says society treats different medical conditions unequally. “One of my old school friends had cancer a few years ago and everyone offered to help, while my emotional injuries are a source of shame and isolation.”….
Dr Cathy Kezelman, president of the Blue Knot foundation, a national organisation helping adults recover from childhood trauma, says Australia’s royal commission into institutional responses to child sexual abuse had found it takes an average of 24 years for people to speak about their abuse. “Some never do,” she says. The Blue Knot helpline has received calls from people disclosing for the first time in their 70s, 80s and 90s.
“We have a society that hasn’t wanted to hear about it,” she explains. “As we saw in the royal commission, a lot of people giving testimony spoke about trying to speak out as a child. Many were punished, they weren’t believed and their concerns were dismissed or minimised….
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/01/you-grow-up-hating-yourself-why-child-abuse-survivors-keep-and-break-their-silence
Grey Faction, Satanic Temple and Lucien Greaves Fact Sheet
https://ritualabuse.us/ritualabuse/grey-faction-satanic-temple-and-lucien-greaves-fact-sheet/
Prince Andrew email surfaces as American woman alleges “disgusting” sexual assault, Epstein accused by nine more women, Trump and Prince Andrew, Epstein’s and Norwegian Royal Family
December 5, 2019 § Leave a comment
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