LOS ANGELES (CN) — Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein asked a California Court of Appeals panel on Thursday to overturn his conviction for raping an Italian model in her hotel room when she was visiting a film festival in Los Angeles in 2013.
Jennifer Bonjean, Weinstein’s attorney, argued at the Second Appellate District hearing in downtown LA that the judge presiding over the 2022 trial had wrongly excluded evidence in support of her client’s innocence — in particular, communications between the Italian woman, only identified as Jane Doe in court, and the organizer of the LA Italia Film Festival that showed they had a sexual relationship.
“Simply put, the lower court all but gutted Mr. Weinstein’s defense,” Bonjean told the three-judge panel…