Judge Deals Blow to Weinstein, Ruling Disgraced Detective Cannot Testify

Weinstein’s lawyers had hoped to call the detective, Nicholas DiGaudio, as part of an effort to cast doubt on the New York City Police Department investigation of Weinstein.

Weinstein, who recently had back surgery, hobbled into court with a walker Monday for the start of his rape trial in Manhattan as protesters, including several actresses who have accused him of wrongdoing, gathered outside the courthouse, holding signs with slogans like “justice for survivors” and “coercion is not consent.”

Rose McGowan, an actress who has accused Weinstein of sexual assault, called the trial “a moment of justice,” even though most of Weinstein’s accusers “won’t have even one day in court.” Addressing Weinstein, she said, “You brought this on yourself by hurting so many.”

The gallery of Part 99 of state Supreme Court was packed with reporters and spectators, as Weinstein, once one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood, made his way slowly to the defense table. He was dressed in a loose black suit with black loafers and flanked by his lawyers.

The trial of Weinstein, 67, is one of the most anticipated proceedings in recent years. Allegations of sexual harassment and assault against the movie mogul exploded in 2017, prompting the global #MeToo movement, a reckoning over sexual misconduct by powerful and influential men in the workplace that has changed public perception and led to numerous men losing their careers.

Jury selection in the trial will begin Tuesday. The lawyers will pick 12 jurors and six alternates from a pool of 500 New Yorkers.

Six women are expected to testify about sexual encounters with Weinstein, though the criminal charges hinge entirely on allegations made by two of them.

Weinstein is charged with raping one woman, who has not been identified in court documents, at a midtown Manhattan hotel in March 2013 and forcing a second woman, Mimi Haleyi, a production assistant, to allow him to perform oral sex on her at his apartment in Manhattan in 2006.

He faces one count of rape and one count of criminal sexual act in those cases, and if convicted could be sentenced to a maximum of 25 years in prison.

Weinstein maintains that his sexual encounters with the women were consensual.

The producer also faces a charge of predatory sexual assault for committing a serious sex crime against more than one person. If convicted of that charge, Weinstein faces a maximum of life in prison.

To further buttress that charge, prosecutors plan on calling the “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra to testify against Weinstein, who she said sexually assaulted her in 1993 in her New York City apartment.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has also won permission to call three other women, who have yet to be identified, to testify about their allegations of sexual assault by the producer. Prosecutors hope those witnesses will help convince a jury that Weinstein has long been a sexual predator, supporting the claims of the two main accusers.

Prosecutors in Pennsylvania used a similar strategy in the sexual assault trial of comedian Bill Cosby, who is in prison.

DiGaudio’s handling of the evidence became an issue in October 2018, when one of the charges in the indictment related to a former actress was thrown out by Justice James M. Burke, who is presiding over the rape trial. The actress, Lucia Evans, had accused Weinstein of forcing her to perform oral sex on her during a business meeting.

But it came to light that DiGaudio had failed to inform prosecutors that Evans had given a different version of the story to a friend, saying she had willingly agreed to the sex act after Weinstein promised her acting jobs in return.

Evans insisted that she had never consented, and DiGaudio denied withholding information from the prosecutors. He was still removed from the case and the charge was dropped, at the prosecution’s request.

Weinstein’s lawyers had hoped to call the detective and grill him on the lapses in the investigation. Burke ruled against them, though he said other witnesses could be asked about the detective’s work on cross-examination.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .