She's Harvey Weinstein's lawyer, and she thinks MeToo is 'dangerous'
It was about an hour into Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial when his lead defense lawyer came under attack. The prosecutor called a recent media blitz intended to discredit Weinstein’s accusers “an abomination” and asked the judge to put an end to it with a gag order.“Ms. Illuzzi stands in this courtroom and calls my client a predator and then has the nerve to say I shouldn’t go out and discuss this case,” Rotunno said. “She wants everyone out there to convict Mr.
Weinstein, who made no secret of wanting to cast a woman as his courtroom champion, asked Rotunno to lead his defense team in May, after parting ways with two sets of lawyers led by men. While the movement has encouraged women to speak up about sexual assault and has highlighted the failures of law enforcement to hold some men responsible for sexual crimes, in Rotunno’s opinion, the cultural pendulum has swung too far. Many of her clients are considered guilty until proven innocent, she said.
Rotunno grew up in the Chicago suburbs, the granddaughter of a police officer and the daughter of a businessman in the grocery industry and a teacher. “She decided to do something a lot of women don’t do,” said David A. Erickson, a retired judge who had once been her supervisor in the state’s attorney office. “Strike out on her own.”
Rotunno, who describes herself as “a reasonable-minded independent,” said she finds it disheartening that the #MeToo movement has affected routine exchanges between men and women.When it comes to sex crimes cases, Rotunno has lost only once at trial. She keeps a courtroom sketch from that case taped to a wall in her office.
Defense lawyers and prosecutors who know her say Rotunno is skilled at scouring evidence and exposing inconsistencies in testimony. “When she walks into a courtroom, she will know what is said on every piece of paper she was given,” said Maria McCarthy, a Cook County prosecutor who has faced Rotunno in court.
The prosecution’s case hinges almost entirely on the jury believing the women’s accounts, since there is little or no physical evidence. Weinstein is charged with raping one woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcing oral sex on a second woman in his apartment in 2006. The other women will be called to show a pattern of behavior.
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