Five years after Manhattan prosecutors persuaded a jury to convict one of Hollywood’s most powerful men of sexually abusing women, they stood before a different group of 12 New Yorkers on Wednesday and methodically began to rebuild a now-familiar case.
The defendant, Harvey Weinstein, wielded his unfettered power over the film and television industry for 30 years to exert “enormous control” and sexually assault three women, prosecutors told a Manhattan jury. His offered them scripts and the promise of fame, and “used those dream opportunities as weapons,” Shannon Lucey, an assistant district attorney, said.
Mr. Weinstein “wanted their bodies,” Ms. Lucey said of the women — Miriam Haley, a former television production assistant who said he assaulted her in 2006; Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress who said Mr. Weinstein raped her in 2013; and Kaja Sokola, a model whom he is charged with assaulting in a Manhattan hotel in 2006.
“The more they resisted, the more forceful he got,” Ms. Lucey said.
The trial against Mr. Weinstein is the second time Manhattan prosecutors have put him before a jury. His first trial in 2020 ended in a split verdict. He was convicted of rape and criminal sexual act, while the jury acquitted him on three other charges, including accusations that he was a sexual predator.
But last April, the state’s highest court overturned that conviction in a fiercely contested 4-3 decision, in which the majority said Mr. Weinstein had been deprived of a fair trial when prosecutors were allowed to call witnesses who said he had assaulted them, but whose accusations were not backed by physical evidence and were not the basis for any of the charges against him.
Mr. Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence on those charges, has also been convicted of sex crimes in California and faces prison there.
On Wednesday, the 12 jurors and six alternates appeared to listen closely as Ms. Lucey told them about the three women, their upbringings and the allegations of sexual assault against Mr. Weinstein.
One man sat turned toward Ms. Lucey, his eyes unwaveringly focused and his chin resting on his closed fist. A female juror’s eyebrows rose and she quickly looked down as Ms. Lucey described an episode in which Ms. Mann said the defendant dragged her into a room in 2013 and forced her into oral sex.
Mr. Weinstein sat in a wheelchair at the defense table, turned toward Ms. Lucey with his left hand over the back of the chair. Throughout the prosecutor’s opening statement, Mr. Weinstein, dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, appeared attentive, at times sitting with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped in front of his face.
Ms. Lucey gave her opening statement under the eyes of Alvin L. Bragg, the district attorney; Meg Reiss, the chief assistant district attorney; and Susan Hoffinger, chief of the office’s investigations division. Across the aisle sat three rows of lawyers and others connected to Mr. Weinstein and his defense.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur L. Aidala, sketched a different picture of the interactions between his client and the three accusers, which he told the jurors would help them “watch the whole movie.”
The women entered consensual relationships with Mr. Weinstein because he had “the key” to open the doors to fame, Mr. Aidala said. Although Mr. Weinstein didn’t look like “George Clooney or Leonardo DiCaprio or Brad Pitt,” he was charismatic, he said.
Mr. Weinstein chuckled and nodded as Mr. Aidala mentioned the movie stars.
Mr. Weinstein acted on his attractions, cheating on his wife, Mr. Aidala said, but he did not force any of the women into sex. “The casting couch is not a crime scene,” Mr. Aidala said.
“Was it immoral? One hundred percent,” Mr. Aidala said, adding, “There is a lot of real estate between immorality and illegality.”
In the back of the courtroom on Wednesday sat Tarale Wulff and Dawn Dunning, both of whom testified against Mr. Weinstein in his first New York trial and whose testimony was ruled inadmissible by the state’s highest court. As Mr. Weinstein’s lawyer spoke, at points calling the complaining witnesses liars and opportunists, both women reacted by shaking their heads and whispering to each other.
Much has changed in the years since Mr. Weinstein’s 2020 conviction. But Mr. Weinstein’s legal team is betting that the effects of the #MeToo movement on the nation’s culture and politics, from Hollywood to the White House, have faded.
Mr. Aidala said Mr. Weinstein had been a powerful person in Hollywood, but that his power was not as great as prosecutors have suggested and would not have blocked the women from opportunities in the industry. Instead, he said, the women had capitalized on a movement that exploded before his first trial and “were trying to take advantage of Mr. Weinstein.”
“Then they figured out a way, when he’s heading toward the bottom, to grab on,” Mr. Aidala told the jurors.
In the 2020 trial, defense lawyers used emails and writings in an effort to discredit the women, showing them asking for movie premiere tickets and thanking Mr. Weinstein for his support, among other things. Mr. Aidala mentioned those communications on Wednesday.
The defense team will also have transcripts of testimony from the first trial and will be able to compare what the women say now with what they said five years ago.
In a September filing, prosecutors said they planned to call “corroborating witnesses” as well as experts who will testify about why victims of rape and sexual assault sometimes maintain contact with their assailants and might not tell law enforcement.
Prosecutors were to call their first witness on Wednesday afternoon.
