NEW YORK – Jurors in Harvey Weinstein's rape trial were shown five naked photos of the disgraced Hollywood producer in a New York City courtroom on Tuesday.
The jurors were told to review photos in a manner so the spectators couldn't see them. Two of the jurors appeared to grimace and another raised his eyebrows as they looked at the images of Weinstein, 67.
Yakov Mandelman, a photographer with the Manhattan District Attorney's office, testified that he took the pictures in June 2018.
Harvey Weinstein arrives at court for his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault, Monday, Feb. 3, 2020 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
The decision came after Jessica Mann, 34, who Weinstein is accused of raping in a hotel room in 2013, provided shocking testimony on Friday that when she first saw the movie mogul, he appeared "deformed" or "intersex."
Though defense objected as “to relevance to this case” to the pictures being shown to the juror, the judge allowed it but they were not shown to the audience. Jurors looked at a few photographs one by one and then passed them around to the juror sitting next to them.
“The first time I saw him fully naked...He has extreme scarring that I didn’t know if maybe he was a burn victim. He does not have testicles and it appears like he has a vagina," Mann said in court Tuesday.
Weinstein's lawyer, Donna Rotunno said the photos were introduced for "no other reason than to shame Mr. Weinstein."
Since 2017, over 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, with his downfall helping to energize the #metoo movement.
Weinstein is charged in New York with the 2013 rape and also sexually assaulting Mimi Haleyi in 2006 -- a former “Project Runway” production assistant. He claims the sexual encounters were consensual.
If convicted he could face life in prison.
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