“The walker has been there as a prop—”
“It’s not a prop! It’s not a prop! Enough!”
Harvey Weinstein’s defense had rest its case, and the prosecution had rest theirs, when Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi and defense attorney Damon Cheronis got into one last shouting match on Tuesday. At issue was an already-denied defense request to call his surgeon as a witness to prove, once and for all, that he isn’t faking his need for a walker.
“They didn’t have to have the walker up there!” Illuzzi shouted as she pointed at the folded walker that Weinstein keeps in arm’s reach when he sits with his five lawyers every day in court.
Weinstein’s surgeon will not testify. And neither will Weinstein, Cheronis confirmed before resting the defense’s case.
The fallen film producer’s trial for the alleged sexual assaults of Jessica Mann in 2013 and Miriam Haley in 2006 is entering its final stretch. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to five charges related to the alleged incidents, which carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. The Manhattan trial included testimony from Mann, Haley, and four other women who described alleged assaults at Weinstein’s hands between 1993 and 2013. (Including Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra.) Lightning rod defense attorney Donna Rotunno is expected to deliver the defense’s closing statement on Thursday. Illuzzi is expected to deliver the prosecution’s closing statement on Friday. “Then I will ask you to deliberate and reach a unanimous verdict on each count,” Judge James Burke told jurors.
“And then that will be that.”
After court was dismissed, Weinstein exited the courthouse with his much-discussed walker. Though Weinstein started the trial with a standard-issue, tennis-ball-festooned model, he upgraded mid-trial to a premium four-wheel aid. Asked about the upgrade, Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said the older walker kept getting stuck on sidewalk grates in front of the courthouse.
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