Rotunno asked for the minimum sentence and said her client couldn’t get a fair trial because of various prejudices against him.
“Having every single thing you do and every move you make be scrutinized and dominated by the media, as you can hear by the clicking of the typewriters today in court,” was insurmountable, she said.
“Mr. Weinstein is a sick man,” she said, referring to a history of heart disease and other unspecified medical issues that were recently diagnosed.
“His parents taught him that you should give back,” she said. “If you look at the allegations in this courtroom, it’s a very small side of who he is. What you don’t see is the other side of what he’s done. He built careers, and because he built careers, everybody wanted a piece of him.”
Rotunno cited Weinstein’s five children, including two grown daughters and three young children.
She said allies of Weinstein wanted to come forward in support but were afraid to do so.
“They don’t feel they can do so because they can lose their jobs,” she said.
Weinstein Showed Contrition, Denial in 2017 (10:40 a.m.)
Yesterday the court released a trove of documents relate to the case, including two letters Weinstein sent to industry colleagues in late 2017, as the allegations against him were becoming public.
In an October 2017 letter, Weinstein expressed some contrition, calling himself “a flawed human being” and admitting he had been “inappropriate in many ways.” He expressed admiration for the then-nascent #MeToo movement, saying it was “teaching old dinosaurs like me the way” in terms of his interactions with women in the industry.
But he also sought to cast blame back, saying he had seen “actors and actresses take an almost predatory stance toward casting.” He also said “things have been wildly exaggerated” and decried the “vitriol” being expressed against him.