RE: No Weinstein thread yet? / HOLLYWOOD & ORGANIZATIONAL SEXUAL ABUSE ALLEGATIONS

[Duchess]

I'd be there so fast my shadow would still be standing here saying "what the fuck?""

I wouldn't even need a plane. I'd pole-vault.

That's so much better. Thank you. *fluffs hair*

I love reading you & HotD spar and I'm pretty sure I've said so. It's sexy and it's fun. Your brains are a turn on.

[Donovan]

HotD is a scary adversary, I'm glad she mostly shares my political beliefs because in order to argue with her one has to really do due diligence when vetting sources because if you fake it, she will know. She's like that terrifying college professor who can instantly spot when you half-assed your way thru a paper at 330 am the day it was due. And will call you on it in front of the class.

[Duchess]

in order to argue with her one has to really do due diligence when vetting sources because if you fake it, she will know.

Ahahahaha! That's exactly why I don't argue with either one of you!

[Donovan]

Ah, I'm a lazy debater, I just am blessed with a nearly photographic rudimentary memory of shit I read. Not always enough to quote statistics off the top of my head, but enough that for any given topic a memory is triggered that tells me about something I read one time and makes research a breeze. It's like my mutant superpower to be an endless well of useless trivia lol

[HairOfTheDog]

As Mags and Duchess posted in THE PERVERT THREAD, Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and criminal sexual acts today.  

Snip:

The jury in New York convicted Weinstein, 67, of third-degree rape of an actress, as well as a count of criminal sexual act in the first degree against a production assistant.

But the jury found him not guilty on two counts of predatory sexual assault, which each carried a sentence of up to life in prison. 

In all, more than 80 women have accused the Oscar-winning producer behind "Pulp Fiction" and "The King's Speech" of sexual assault and harassment going back decades, though the charges were based primarily on allegations of two women, who each took the stand to describe their experiences in oftentimes graphic and emotional terms.

Weinstein was handcuffed and taken into custody just after 12 p.m. ET and is slated to be sentenced March 11.

He faces up to 25 years for the first degree conviction + 4 years for the third degree conviction.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/har...e-n1137956
https://deadline.com/2020/02/harvey-wein...202862551/

[Maggot]

I looked for this thread.......

[Duchess]

He's at Rikers Island even as I type this.

[Maggot]

No doubt with his "walker" by his side keeping him company.

[Duchess]

They took him away without it. Someone was describing the scene in the courtroom when they took him away. Apparently he was in disbelief that he was found guilty. That doesn't really surprise me, throughout this trial I got the vibe that he felt entitled to do all that he did. Filthy bastard. I saw a tiny clip of him leaving the courthouse in cuffs and he was moving right along, not slow & hesitant like an old man. 

I saw a headline when I signed on this morning stating that he went to the hospital because of a heart issue but yesterday I had read that some journalists had followed the police van to Rikers so now I don't know where that sumbitch is.

[Donovan]

I have thoughts on Weinstein and the #metoo movement as a whole, but I think I will give them a different thread since they're mostly reflective...

[MirahM]

He's at Rikers Island even as. I type this.

It looks like he never made there, but instead was sent to a hospital.

[HairOfTheDog]

Sexual Abuse in the Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America declared bankruptcy on February 18^th.

The 110-year-old congressionally chartered organization — whose members have included Neil Armstrong, Martin Luther King Jr., and four U.S. presidents — filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware, citing the mounting legal fees incurred by the 275 sex abuse lawsuits it currently faces and an additional 1,400 individual abuse claims that it knows about but have not yet been filed.

Yet the organization isn’t broke. In its bankruptcy petition, BSA estimated that it had between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and less than $1 billion in liabilities. Instead, the Boy Scouts appear to be using bankruptcy to limit the the amount of money it will have to pay to settle its sexual abuse cases.

“This is not a traditional bankruptcy,” says Michael Mertz, a Chicago attorney who represents roughly 300 former scouts who say they were sexually abused. “Normally you declare bankruptcy when you have more debts than assets. I think this is an effort to use the courts to limit exposure to future claims.”

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

The Boy Scouts have been dogged by sexual abuse lawsuits for decades. One of the earliest cases dates back to 1977, when four New Orleans scoutmasters either pleaded guilty to or were convicted of sexually assaulting young boys. 

But it wasn’t until 2012 that the extent of the abuse — and BSA’s knowledge of it — became public. 

That year, the Oregon Supreme Court ordered the release of 1,200 confidential files that BSA had kept on suspected child abusers from the 1960s through the 1980s. 

Known within the organization as the “ineligible volunteer files,” the list included names of alleged abusers and what they were believed to have done. (Other files, dating back to the 1920s, have not been publicly released.)

The Boy Scouts of America did not respond to a request for comment, but in a 2018 interview with Bloomberg Businessweek, Michael Surbaugh, then the chief scout executive of the BSA, explained that the files were an ad hoc attempt to prevent pedophiles from moving from troop to troop.

(continued)

[HairOfTheDog]

“This is in an era where there’s very little prosecution, there’s not going to be a court record, there’s no fax machine, no Internet, when something happens in a community generally the parents don’t want to report it. 

The police may not investigate,” Surbaugh said. “So we kept a list…. We had the ability to say, ‘You can’t be in our organization.’ ”

This system didn’t always work. For example, Thomas Hacker was arrested in 1961 and accused of molesting Boy Scouts in Indiana and was convicted of sexual assault of a minor in 1971. 

BSA placed him on its ineligible volunteer list, but Hacker was still able to join a new Boy Scout troop after moving to Illinois. (Hacker was again convicted of sexually assaulting a Boy Scout in 1989.) 

After his name appeared in the Oregon files, 16 former scouts sued the BSA in 2013, alleging that the organization had failed to protect them from Hacker.  

The Oregon files also caused insurance companies to stop paying BSA’s abuse settlements, because insurers said the files proved the organization had known what was going on.

In its petition, BSA has sought to avoid a “prolonged bankruptcy case” or proceedings that allow for “endless discovery,” so its bankruptcy case can be decided as quickly as possible. A similar tactic has been employed by the Catholic Church.

More:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/...just-begun

[HairOfTheDog]

Harvey Weinstein was facing a maximum of 29 years.

His attorneys were requesting 5 years, but the judge in New York sentenced him to 23 years today.

He still faces charges in Los Angeles as well.

[BigMark]

i think he got his filthy hands on jlaw

[Duchess]

the judge in New York sentenced him to 23 years today.

He still faces charges in Los Angeles as well.

Excellent to read. 

[HairOfTheDog]

the judge in New York sentenced him to 23 years today.

He still faces charges in Los Angeles as well.

Excellent to read. 

Before the sentencing, the defense read a statement positioning Weinstein as a victim of poor health and #MeToo, and someone who donates a lot to charity.  They argued that he therefore deserved mercy in the sentencing.

Well, the judge's job is to sentence the convict for the crimes he committed against the real victims and that's what he did. 

Predictably, Weinstein's defense attorney just held a press conference claiming that the jury caved, the judge was corrupt, and the sentencing was ridiculous and obscene.   

[Duchess]

He damaged women, some for their lifetime. He deserves every year he gets.

I get so sick of people blaming others for their crap. Of course the jury didn't cave, of course the judge isn't corrupt. Jesus.

[MirahM]

But he handed out soup once at the soup kitchen.
And dropped a few pennies in the red bucket at Christmas time!

People don't pull these sort of stories out at any other cases. (That I have seen)