Harvey Weinstein Denies His Walker Is A Prop
Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault case is coming to an end in NYC. The defense rested its case without calling Harvey to testify. But I guess they don’t need Harvey putting on a “woe is me” act on the stand when he can do so off the stand with help from a walker. Many have accused Harvey of pulling a Bill Cosby by acting all frail and sickly to get the jury to think, “How can we send one of Ursula’s polyps to prison?!” But well, Harvey is telling reporters that the walker is not a prop. He really is a wobbly mess.
Harvey is currently facing life in prison in New York, and he’s also got a trial in California to look forward to. If convicted in CA, he could get up to 28 years in prison. So some think that one of his acts of defense is to try to get sympathy by using a walker. His lawyers claim he needs it because of back issues. Deadline says that after the jury was dismissed yesterday, the lead prosecutor, Joan Illuzi, got spicy. She pointed to the walker and said that it’s a prop. This sent the defense team into a tizzy. Harvey’s attorney, Damon Cheronis, shouted, “It is not a prop!”
Joan said that even though using the walker as a prop is “very disingenuous,” she won’t bring it up in final arguments.
Cheronis previously had requested permission to call Weinstein’s back surgeon to the stand to verify that the walker is necessary and not a ploy for jury sympathy; the judge denied the request.
But today Cheronis again broached the subject, arguing that since the surgeon request was denied Monday, he now requests that prosecuting attorneys not make reference to Weinstein’s walker or his seemingly ill health. (Weinstein’s attorneys say he was injured in a car accident last summer, and as a result had back surgery just weeks before the trial got underway in early January.)
Outside the courtroom, a reporter asked Harvey if the walker’s a prop:
“I’ll have a race with you,” Weinstein responded sarcastically, with a smile. The team’s spokesman Juda S. Engelmayer told the reporter, “Just look at him.”
Harvey also claimed that he would have testified himself, but his lawyers told him he didn’t have to:
#HarveyWeinstein just walked out of court & answered media’s questions…
Asked was he thinking of testifying? Harvey said, “I was.”
His team said, “He didn’t have to.”
Asked if his walker is fake? Harvey smiled, laughed and sarcastically said, “I’ll have a race with you.” pic.twitter.com/QSBPFRhAL7
— Elizabeth Wagmeister (@EWagmeister) February 11, 2020
The jury has reportedly not seen Harvey enter and exit the courtroom with his walker, but still, prop or not, that walker was a bad idea. Because it draws your eyes to his crotch, and makes you think of that soul-killing description of his genitals, and that’ll make anyone scream “GUILTY! GUILTY!” so they can run out of there fast to buy bleach for their brain.
Pic: Twitter