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Harvey Weinstein, movie mogul who gave rise to #MeToo movement,
pleads not guilty to sex-crime charges in California
21 Jul, 2021 21:48
FILE PHOTO: Harvey Weinstein attends a remote court hearing, June 15, 2021© New York State Unified Court System / Handout via Reuters
Fresh from being extradited to California from a New York prison, disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to 11 sex-crime charges, including four counts of rape, in Los Angeles.
Defense lawyer Mark Werksman entered the plea on Weinstein's behalf on Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. Weinstein, co-founder of the once-powerful studio Miramax, was shackled and brought into the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies in a wheelchair, wearing a brown jail jumpsuit and a Covid-19 mask pulled down under his nose.
The arraignment hearing came just one day after 69-year-old Weinstein arrived in California, ending his fight against being extradited to the state. He was sentenced to 23 years in a New York prison in March 2020, after being convicted in that state of raping one woman, an aspiring actress, and forcing a second, a production assistant, to perform oral sex.
In California, Weinstein is accused of sexual assaults on five unidentified actresses and models. The alleged incidents occurred from 2004 to 2013, mostly in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills hotel rooms. He faces charges of rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual battery by restraint, and sexual penetration by use of force.
“The big picture is that these allegations stem from many years ago, and that’s the problem the district attorney’s office is going to face,” Werksman said. “And that’s the problem all of these accusers face, in that they brought allegations that can’t be substantiated or corroborated by any forensic evidence, any contemporaneous reporting, any credible witnesses.”
Werksman told Judge Sergio Tapia that he will file a motion to dismiss three of the charges, saying they were beyond the statute of limitations. He called those charges “baseless” and “from long, long ago.” He added that he’s confident Weinstein will be acquitted if given a fair trial.
Los Angeles prosecutors obtained a grand jury indictment against Weinstein in March, so they won’t need a preliminary hearing to show probable cause that the allegations are true. That means the case will be able to advance to trial relatively quickly. Weinstein’s extradition agreement reportedly includes a provision that the trial begin by November, unless the defendant waives that right.
Extradition proceedings were halted last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, and Weinstein’s lawyers had argued unsuccessfully for his transfer to California to be delayed further on “humanitarian” grounds, given his medical ailments. Werksman asked on Wednesday for a health examination of Weinstein, citing such concerns as his client’s vision. “He’s going blind in one eye,” the lawyer said.
Starting in 2017, Weinstein was accused of sexually assaulting dozens of actresses and other young women, and of using pressure tactics to silence his victims. Some of his accusers, such as actresses Rosanna Arquette and Heather Graham, said Weinstein threatened to block them from getting film roles if they didn’t do what he wanted.
“Anyone who abuses their power and influence to prey upon others will be brought to justice,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement on Wednesday.
Prosecutors ask to include new allegations of bribery
and sexual abuse in R. Kelly sex trafficking trial
By Variety Staff|
23 minutes ago
Federal prosecutors have brought forth new allegations against R. Kelly in his sex trafficking case, and are asking for the ability to present the information to jurors at his upcoming trial in New York.
In a court filing on Friday, obtained by the Associated Press, prosecutors brought forth a wide variety of new bribery and sexual abuse claims, including an allegation that Kelly had sexual contact with an underage boy.
Throughout the case, Kelly has denied the allegations of abuse.
As reported by the Associated Press, the filing states that Kelly met the 17-year-old boy in 2006 at a McDonald's, and invited him to attend a party at his house.
The boy attended, along with his mother and stepfather, and Kelly then invited the boy to his studio after learning of his musical aspirations. The prosecutors then allege that Kelly asked the boy "what he was willing to do to succeed in the music business" and had sexual contact with him.
Among other claims, the filing also alleges that following the release of the Surviving R. Kelly docuseries in February 2019, a "crisis manager" for Kelly bribed a Cook County clerk with US$2500 (approx. $3390) to obtain information about Kelly's legal troubles.
The filing alleges that Kelly was aware of the bribe, according to a recording of a conversation between the two that was recovered during a search of Kelly's phone.
Though the new allegations do not translate to new charges for Kelly, the prosecution is hoping they can be admitted as usable evidence in the trial.
According to the Associated Press, Kelly is charged with leading a "criminal enterprise" that helped him recruit women and girls for sex and pornography.
The current charges against Kelly involve six anonymous women and girls.
If allegations against current, former Blackhawks brass are true,
then heads must roll
Did the Hawks cover up an alleged sexual assault against a player by former video coach Bradley Aldrich during the team’s run to the 2010 Stanley Cup title?
By Steve Greenberg@SLGreenberg
Jul 24, 2021, 9:00am CDT
Chicago Sun Times
Helping young people was one. Surviving was the other. Deep inside major-college football’s winningest coach at the time stirred the feeling that retirement would hasten his demise.
But the next year brought the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. By the time Paterno tried to get out in front of it, he was far too late. After 61 years of coaching at the school, Paterno was fired in November 2011. Two months later, he was dead.
It was cancer. Those close to him were convinced a broken will contributed, too.
‘‘My name — I have spent my whole life trying to make that name mean something,’’ Paterno said, crying uncontrollably, the day after he was fired, according to biographer Joe Posnanski. ‘‘And now it’s gone.’’
He was right about that. His name was ruined. So were those of Penn State president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley. Careers: over. Reputations: destroyed by cover-up.
There’s always a damn cover-up.
Honesty and truth are so low on our character traits, it's pathetic.
And the public unraveling of a cover-up involves two essential questions. The first: How much did so-and-so know? And, eventually, the second: If so-and-so knew anything at all, how could he fail to do the right thing and allow future victims to be preyed upon? The second question never, ever goes away.
Did the Blackhawks cover up an alleged sexual assault against a player by former video coach Bradley Aldrich during their run to the 2010 Stanley Cup title? Did then-president John McDonough, general manager Stan Bowman, hockey executive Al MacIsaac and mental-skills coach James Gary know all about the assault and fail to do any of the right things? Was knowledge of Aldrich’s nefariousness even more widespread in the organization than that?
If allegations brought in separate lawsuits against the Hawks — one by the former player, another by a former high school student whom Aldrich was convicted in 2013 of assaulting in Michigan — are true, then reputations and careers must fall.
The Hawks have hired Chicago law firm Jenner & Block to conduct an ‘‘independent review’’ of allegations that include the team providing positive references to potential employers after Aldrich left the organization in 2010. One dearly hopes the truth — all of it — will be exposed, but ‘‘independent’’ reviews don’t always turn out to be so independent. Perhaps the NHL eventually will have to get more involved.
‘‘We need to give the experts the necessary time and the latitude to do their job well,’’ Bowman said during a video conference Thursday with reporters. ‘‘I am eager to speak about this in more detail in the future, but for now I have to respect the pending litigation and the independent review that’s underway. I’m not going to be able to make any comments about that at this time. We have to let the process play itself out.’’
The Hawks and the NHL have avoided saying whether the findings of the investigation will be made public, which is a troubling sign. Anything less than transparency would be suspect and an egregious disservice to us all — and especially to all those who have been victimized by sexual assault.
In March, the British newspaper The Guardian ran a series on sexual assault in sports and specifically examined sexual abuse by pedophile coaches. There was a story on South Korean Olympic coach Cho Jae-beom, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for abusing a gold-medal-winning speed skater. Another story examined the sordidness of former Irish Olympic swimming coach George Gibney, who fled the country — to the United States, eventually — to avoid trial. Another explored the actions of the monstrous Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics national-team and Michigan State University doctor who is serving a 60-year sentence for his crimes.
The series didn’t include the Sandusky scandal. It didn’t include the University of Michigan scandal surrounding former athletic doctor Robert Anderson, alleged to have abused athletes at the school for decades. It left out Graham James, the former Canadian junior-hockey coach who was convicted of sexually abusing multiple players who went on to NHL careers.
But present in all those cases mentioned above were varying degrees of cover-up. There’s always a damn cover-up.
And though the names of the abusers are the ones that ring loudest in our memories, many of those who try to keep the cat in the bag — who fail miserably at doing the right thing — end up going down, too, inked with the indelible shame they deserve.
Hours before he was fired, Paterno released a statement in which he said he would retire at the end of the season. Penn State’s board of trustees voted instead to cut ties immediately, rendering the statement moot. Nevertheless, six words from Paterno’s missive live on as the most meaningful and memorable quote he ever gave — an epitaph, of sorts.
‘‘I wish I had done more.’’
In the end, they always do.
'Evil ghost that's haunted my life': Son of the man who made Simon
Cowell famous Simon Lythgoe was abused by a prep school teacher
By MAX AITCHISON FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
PUBLISHED: 20:32 EDT, 24 July 2021
Stripped to his underpants, 11-year-old Simon Lythgoe found himself wrestling with a teacher on his living-room floor.
The disturbing scene was only interrupted when his father arrived home early from work and – incensed by what he saw – threw the teacher out of the house and warned him never to return.
Because this was the 1980s, with child sex abuse a subject that was rarely discussed, the matter went no further. Worse still, the abuse continued.
Simon now plans to attend Wood Green Crown Court in North London on September 2 to watch Wells, who is currently serving a 15-year term for his previous convictions, being sentenced
For Simon, however, it was the first time he understood that there was something wrong about the behaviour of Peter Wells, his deputy headmaster at Keble, a private preparatory school for boys in North London.
Between the ages of nine and 12, he was subjected to vile attacks by Wells. Like many survivors of childhood sexual assault, Simon felt a deep sense of shame and guilt, spending most of his adult life desperately trying to bury any memory of Wells, until it almost destroyed him.
Now aged 46, he is waiving his anonymity after 74-year-old Wells finally pleaded guilty to a sickening catalogue of crimes against young boys spanning decades.
A Mail on Sunday investigation has discovered there were multiple complaints made against Wells at Keble, which were either ignored or never followed up.
His crimes only caught up with him in 2017 when three victims came forward to the police. He now faces sentencing for separate offences relating to Simon and another victim.
Speaking to The Mail on Sunday, Simon tells how he was aged just five when the deputy headmaster, then in his 30s, scooped him up and patted him on the bottom. But the abuse began in earnest four years later after Wells befriended his parents, who were both carving out successful careers in showbusiness.
Simon’s father, a television producer, later found fame as ‘Nasty Nigel’ Lythgoe, a judge on reality show Popstars, worked on the launch of Pop Idol and went on to kick-start Simon Cowell’s transatlantic career on American Idol.
Meanwhile, his mother Bonnie became a celebrated dancer and theatre producer.
Recalling how his abuser offered to help with his lessons, Simon says: ‘Peter Wells came across as a very loving, sweet, supportive man. And in a family where both my parents were working very hard, he would take me under his wing and almost parent me like he cared.
‘When I look back, I realise how conniving and subtle these sexual predators are. How they manipulate parents by slyly becoming their friends and making themselves useful.’
Although the wrestling incident occurred in the Lythgoe family home, the abuse typically happened when Wells took his young victim back to the house he shared in Cheshunt, Hertfordshire, with his ageing mother for private lessons on Friday evenings.
Once there, they would often eat shepherd’s pie for dinner, while Wells would tease Simon about how skinny he was and give him Guinness to drink, claiming it would bulk him up.
At first, Wells – who was also head of both science and games – tested the waters by suggesting they take a nap on his bed before tutoring.
But as the weeks passed, he grew more confident and would pleasure himself while molesting the boy. Simon says: ‘I can remember every detail of his house. The musty, old-person smell, the very steep stairs leading up to his bedroom. The old mahogany wardrobe and the thick, dark covers on his bed.
‘He used to say things like, “It’s our little secret.” ’
There is more on this story on the Daily Mail
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