Harvey Weinstein’s Accusers React to His Overturned Rape Conviction
“This, today, is an act of institutional betrayal,” Ashley Judd said.
Ashley Judd is among multiple Harvey Weinstein accusers who are expressing disappointment with the overturning of the movie mogul’s 2020 rape conviction. Judd, who was the first actress to publicly come forward with sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, shared her reaction to the news during a press conference. “This is what it’s like to be a woman in America, living with male entitlement to our bodies,” Judd said, per Entertainment Weekly. “This, today, is an act of institutional betrayal,” she added, “and our institutions betray survivors of male sexual violence.” Judd has previously alleged that Weinstein sexually harassed her in the ‘90s, claiming that he had her sent to his hotel room, where he showed up in a bathrobe and asked if she would watch him shower or let him give her a massage. “The misguided opinion of four judges today does not change what we survivors know, and we acknowledge the fierceness of the minority opinion,” Judd said in a statement to USA Today. “The truth is consistent.”
New York’s highest court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction because it found that the judge in his high-profile Me Too trial had unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations about his previous behavior that weren’t part of the case. The Manhattan district attorney’s office said it intends to retry Weinstein. (In the meantime, he will stay in prison because he was convicted in 2022 in Los Angeles of a different rape.)
Actress Jessica Barth, who accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct after she met him at a Golden Globes party in 2011, told USA Today that today’s decision sets a “dangerous” legal precedent. “Evidence of prior bad acts in order to prove a pattern of behavior is often allowed in criminal cases and should absolutely be allowed in sexual assault cases,” Barth said. She added that Voices in Action, her nonprofit supporting sexual assault survivors, will continue to “support and fight for justice for victims of these horrific crimes.”
Lauren Sivan, a former broadcast journalist who alleged that Weinstein forced her to watch him masturbate into a potted plant at a New York restaurant in 2007, reacted to what she described as a “legal loophole” to Rolling Stone. She said she’s grateful that Weinstein will remain in jail because of the L.A. trial, but feels for the women who testified in New York. “The idea that they might have to do it all over again is really heartbreaking,” she said. “It’s like picking a scab off a wound for these women who might have to go through this all over again.”
Caitlin Dulany, who alleged that Weinstein sexually assaulted her during the Cannes Film Festival in 1996, said in a statement to Rolling Stone that the ruling is a “terrible setback for survivors everywhere.” “There are so many of us who lived silently with our stories for years, for fear of retribution and with the belief that we could not seek and achieve justice,” she said. “What Harvey Weinstein did to us affected our lives and careers in ways that we will never recover from. What happened today is a travesty of justice – but I’m not surprised. The justice system is in deep need of reform.”
The Silence Breakers, a group of more than 10 unnamed Weinstein accusers, called the decision “disheartening” and “profoundly unjust” in a statement to USA Today. “But this ruling does not diminish the validity of our experiences or our truth; it’s merely a setback,” they said. “The man found guilty continues to serve time.”
Filmmaker and She Said star Sarah Ann Masse, who alleged that Weinstein harassed and assaulted her when she was interviewing for a job as nanny in 2008, shared her reaction in a statement to Rolling Stone. “Please know that nothing about today’s decision implies or states that Weinstein is innocent,” she said. “And the world has been forever changed by the women who were brave enough to challenge him in court.”
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