The case against Harvey Weinstein is falling apart

The sexual assault case against Harvey Weinstein is in danger of crumbling after Manhattan prosecutors found an accuser’s written account of her encounter with the movie mogul that suggests it was consensual, multiple sources told The Post.

Lucia Evans has accused Weinstein of forcing her to perform oral sex on him inside his Tribeca office in 2004, when she was a 21-year-old college student and aspiring actress. She is one of three women whose allegations of sexual assault are being prosecuted by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office.

But a prior employer of Evans turned over the personal writings she’d left on the company computer, which appear to contradict her grand jury testimony, a law enforcement source said.

“The writings indicate it was consensual, friendly,” a source told The Post. “It has caused a split [in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office], some believe the charges should be dropped and that there’s a problem [with this complainant].”

Manhattan prosecutors ultimately decided not to drop Evans from the case despite some internal opposition.

The latest revelation comes after another damaging report, that the NYPD’s lead investigator on the case failed to turn over statements from a casting director who said Evans told him she had performed the sex act to score an acting gig.

Another source said, “The casting witness is a problem, but that is still ‘he said, she said.’ It’s harder to explain away her own words.”

The DA’s office declined to comment for this article.

This Thursday, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke is expected to rule on whether to dismiss count six of the indictment that relates to Evans, sources said.

He’ll also decide whether to lift the protective order, which allowed prosecutors to file the damning disclosures under seal.

Weinstein’s defense lawyer, Ben Brafman, has lobbied the judge to make them public, sources said.

The former Miramax boss faces up to life in prison on charges of rape, predatory sex assault and criminal sex acts for the alleged attack on Evans and two other women.

In court papers, Brafman previously argued that the case against the “Shakespeare in Love” producer should be dismissed because prosecutors hid the fact that he had a “long-term, consensual” relationship with one of the accusers.

Weinstein and the woman, whose name has not been released, exchanged 400 emails during the “weeks and years after the alleged rape,” the papers state.

In a February 2017 email sent nearly four years after the alleged sex attack, she wrote, “I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call. :)”

Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon countered in court papers that none of the emails show the accuser denying that she was raped and insisted the presentation to the grand jury was fair and complete.

The third complainant, production assistant Mimi Haleyi, alleges that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006 inside his SoHo home.

“My client has sacrificed everything for her day in court to hold Harvey Weinstein responsible for sexual assault,” said Evans’ lawyer Carrie Goldberg. “Getting to the truth is the very purpose of trials. And we have utmost confidence that her testimony and supporting evidence will prove his guilt.”

Source

Alan Dershowitz files lawsuit against his accuser and her lawyers

‘Jane Doe’ Lawyers Sue Dershowitz for Defamation

By JACOB GERSHMAN

Alan Dershowitz has vowed to slap a defamation suit on the two lawyers who claimed in a court document that Florida financier Jeffrey Epstein arranged sexual liaisons for him with an underage prostitute.

Those lawyers have beaten him to the punch.

Paul Cassell and Bradley Edwards, who represent a woman claiming she had “sexual relations” with Mr. Dershowitz at Mr. Epstein’s direction, have filed a defamation lawsuit against Mr. Dershowitz in Florida circuit court, according to Mr. Cassell.

States the lawsuit:

Immediately following the filing of what the Defendant, DERSHOWITZ, knew to be an entirely proper and well-founded pleading, DERSHOWITZ initiated a massive public media assault on the reputation and character of BRADLEY J. EDWARDS and PAUL G. CASSELL accusing them of intentionally lying in their filing, of having leveled knowingly false accusations against the Defendant, DERSHOWITZ, without ever conducting any investigation of the credibility of the accusations, and of having acted unethically to the extent that their willful misconduct warranted and required disbarment

It cites an interview that Mr. Dershowitz gave to CNN International in which he called Messrs. Cassell and Edwards “sleazy, unprofessional, unethical lawyers” who should have known that their client is “lying through her teeth.”

Told of the lawsuit on Tuesday, Mr. Dershowitz told Law Blog that he was “thrilled” by the development, “This gives me a chance to litigate the case. I can expose their corruption,” he said. “I can show how fraudulent the allegations are. This makes my day.”

Mr. Dershowitz said the lawsuit will allow his lawyers — among other things — to depose Messrs. Cassell and Edwards and their client, a woman identified in court papers as Jane Doe #3.

Mr. Cassell had no comment concerning Mr. Dershowitz’s latest remarks.

Mr. Dershowitz has sought to shoot down claims that surfaced last week in a court filing by plaintiffs as part of a lawsuit against the federal government over a 2007 non-prosecution deal it struck with Mr. Epstein. Mr. Epstein is a former client and friend of Mr. Dershowitz’s who pleaded guilty in 2008 to a state charge of soliciting underage prostitutes.

Mr. Epstein avoided federal prosecution as part of a deal with U.S. prosecutors that Mr. Dershowitz helped negotiate. That agreement is the subject of a lawsuit against the U.S. government brought by alleged sexual-abuse victims, who seek to invalidate what they claim was a secret sweetheart deal, a charge the government denies.

Jane Doe #3, a woman seeking to join the lawsuit, says Mr. Epstein ordered her to have “sexual relations” with Mr. Dershowitz on the businessman’s private plane, on his private Caribbean island and also his homes in New York City and Palm Beach. The same document also links Prince Andrew, the son of Queen Elizabeth II, to the prostitution ring, eliciting a strongly worded denial by Buckingham Palace.

Mr. Dershowitz, in a sworn statement filed in federal court on Monday, labeled Jane Doe #3 a “serial liar,” while accusing her lawyers of deliberately making a “false and defamatory” charge.

Martin Weinberg, a lawyer for Mr. Epstein, who isn’t a party to the lawsuit, told Law Blog in an earlier statement that the allegations against Mr. Dershowitz “are old, and discredited, and appear designed to do nothing more than generate as much tabloid publicity as possible.”

Source

This is where the rubber meets the road. Now the showdown is about to commence.