Flanked by several sex crimes detectives

May 25th, 2018 | By
Category: Notes and Comment Blog
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Harvey Weinstein turned himself in this morning.

Harvey Weinstein turned himself in to New York City detectives and appeared in court on Friday on charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex, a watershed in a monthslong sex crimes investigation and in the #MeToo movement.

Around 7:30 a.m., Mr. Weinstein walked into a police station house in Lower Manhattan, flanked by several sex crimes detectives. Toting three large books under his right arm, he looked up without saying a word as a crush of reporters and onlookers yelled, “Harvey!”

…

He was fingerprinted and formally booked. Then about an hour later, he was led from the First Police Precinct in TriBeCa and taken to court on Centre Street to face rape charges, his arms pinned behind him in three sets of handcuffs to accommodate his girth, a law enforcement official said.

Jodi Kantor – one of the reporters, along with Megan Tuohy, who broke the story in the Times – underlined a moment.

Back to the Times:

Around 9:25 a.m., Mr. Weinstein was escorted into a courtroom in Manhattan Criminal Court by two police investigators, one holding each of his elbows. They were Sergeant Keri Thompson and Detective Nicholas DiGuadio from the department’s Special Victims Division, both of whom have long been involved in tracking down Mr. Weinstein’s accusers and corroborating their accounts.

Ah, so they’re not just leading him around today, they’ve been on his case. They’re his Benson and Stabler.

[Weinstein’s lawyer Benjamin] Brafman said he would “move quickly” to dismiss the charges, calling them “constitutionally flawed and factually unsubstantiated.”

“I anticipate that the women who have made these allegations, when subjected to cross-examination — in the event we get that far — will not be believed by 12 people,” Mr. Brafman said. He continued, “Assuming we get 12 fair people who are not consumed by the movement that seems to have overtaken this case.”

Indeed. Women are always not believed…except when there’s a wicked “movement” to report on and talk about all the many many many not-believed women who have been assaulted or raped over the years.

Mr. Weinstein reigned as one of Hollywood’s top producers, known as much for his bullying and aggression as for his cinematic success. Over the years, journalists and investigators, chasing leads from a whisper network of women and a handful of complainants, tried to expose the accusations and hold him accountable, but came up empty. Mr. Weinstein’s power was enormous, his and his lawyers’ connections were extensive, and he was often able to buy or coerce the silence of any accusers.

It helps to have lots of money to make sure women are not believed.

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