Harvey Weinstein's rape accuser tried to 'fabricate' witness: defense lawyer

Harvey Weinstein’s 2013 rape accuser tried to “fabricate” a witness when she came forward with her allegations last year — four years after the alleged encounter, his lawyers charged Thursday.

Weinstein, who faces a minimum of 10 years behind bars on the top count in his sex assault indictment, is seeking to have the criminal case dismissed on several grounds, including that the investigation was corrupt.

His lawyer Ben Brafman said the woman who said she was forcibly raped by Weinstein at a Doubletree Hotel on Lexington Ave. tried to recruit her former best friend as a deponent — even though the accusation was news to the other woman.

“According to the witness, (the accuser) reached out to her — after not speaking to her for more than two years — and said to her that Mr. Weinstein had assaulted (her) a few years ago in New York,” Brafman wrote in the filing. “She then asked the witness to assist (her) with the accusation she was making against Mr. Weinstein, presumably so as to serve as a prompt outcry witness.”

“The witness responded that (the accuser) never ever told her that she was assaulted or raped by Mr. Weinstein,” the filing continues. “The witness further told (the accuser) that she did not want to be involved with (the accuser’s) allegations against Mr. Weinstein.”

The court papers are part of a battle in writing between Brafman and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.

Prosecutors recently defended their case even after they were forced to dismiss a count of criminal sex act related to one victim — former aspiring actress Lucia Evans — who said she was forced to perform oral sex on Weinstein at his Tribeca office in 2004.

The DA’s office accused the lead NYPD detective on the case of withholding exculpatory information relating to Evans and they also uncovered an email draft Evans authored to her husband in 2015 in which she undermined her own account.

The defense probe “has revealed substantial additional exculpatory information that has also been withheld from Mr. Weinstein — including the fact that one of the two remaining complaining witnesses...may have attempted to fabricate a ‘prompt outcry’ witness, years after the alleged assault,” Brafman wrote in Thursday’s document.

Weinstein’s defense team previously revealed that the rape accuser swapped some 40 affectionate and flirtatious emails with the fallen Hollywood honcho in the four years after she says she was attacked in March 2013.

She had a 10-year ongoing consensual relationship with the producer, who has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by dozens of women in the entertainment business.

Weinstein, who is facing several lawsuits, has been criminally charged only in Manhattan Supreme Court.

While charges were pending against him in connection to alleged attacks against three women, he now stands charged with two counts of pattern conduct, which carry a minimum of 10 years behind bars.

There are two counts of rape related to the 2013 accuser and a count of criminal sex act in connection to Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant who says Weinstein forced a sex act on her in 2006.

The DA’s office declined to comment.

Source

Junkie cop

Little Miss Dangerous has resigned.

Disgraced NYPD cop Stacey Staniland quit the force just one day after she was arrested last week — the third time she was collared in eight months, police sources said Wednesday.

Staniland was nabbed most recently July 1 after she rammed her motorcycle into two cars in the West New Brighton section of Staten Island, cops said.

Wearing a helmet that read “Little Miss Dangerous,” the troubled cop was turning her Honda CBR600RR from Davis Avenue onto Henderson Avenue just after 11 a.m.

She allegedly spun out and smashed into the vehicles at a red light, sources said.

But police made a shocking discovery as she sifted through her purse to pull out ID when they spotted needles, a silver spoon and drug residue, sources said.

She resigned on July 2, a day after the arrest, police sources said. She was suspended three times, once for each arrest.

The not-so-Finest’s first run-in with the law was in December 2014 while she was working at the 122nd Precinct in New Dorp.

She was busted for allegedly breaking into the home of her boyfriend’s mother in Elm Park, where she swiped jewelry, sources said.

She was arrested again in May while her criminal case was still open when police discovered she was doped up on duty at a police facility in Brooklyn, cops said.

Staniland was charged with possession of a hypodermic instrument and criminal possession of a controlled substance in that case, police said.

She still faces charges for possession of a hypodermic instrument and criminal possession of a controlled substance from her latest arrest, according to police.

Staniland earned $94,153 in 2014.

Source