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  • ‘Regret is not rape,’ Weinstein lawyer says in closing

    ‘Regret is not rape,’ Weinstein lawyer says in closing

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    LOS ANGELES — An attorney for Harvey Weinstein at his Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial told jurors Thursday that prosecutors’ case relies entirely on asking them to trust women whose testimony showed they were untrustworthy.

    “‘Take my word for it’ — five words that sum up the entirety of the prosecution’s case,” Jackson told jurors in his closing argument.

    The 70-year-old former movie magnate is charged with raping and sexually assaulting two women and committing sexual battery against two others.

    Jackson argued that two of the women were entirely lying about their encounters, while the other two took part in “transactional sex” for the sake of career advancement that was “100% consensual.” But after the #MeToo explosion around Weinstein with stories in the New York Times and the New Yorker — which Jackson called a “dogpile” on his client — the women became regretful.

    “Regret is not rape,” Jackson told jurors several times.

    Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York for rape and sexual assault against two women.

    Prosecutors in Los Angeles completed their closing argument earlier Thursday, after giving most of it Wednesday, and urged jurors to complete Weinstein’s takedown by convicting him in California.

    “It is time for the defendant’s reign of terror to end,” Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said. “It is time for the kingmaker to be brought to justice.”

    In his closings, Weinstein’s attorney urged jurors to look past the emotion of the testimony the four women gave, and focus on the factual evidence.

    “‘Believe us because we’re mad, believe us because we cried,’” Jackson said jurors were being asked to do. “Well, fury does not make fact. And tears do not make truth.”

    He was especially adamant about the tearful and dramatic testimony of Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said Weinstein raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2005.

    “It was a theatrical, overly dramatized performance,” he said. “What you saw was an act.”

    Siebel Newsom was one of the women who engaged in “transactional sex,” Jackson argued. “She knows it, and she hates it.”

    He said the testimony was also dishonest, as when Siebel Newsom testified that she bumped into Weinstein occasionally after the assault, including an encounter at the 2007 film festival, which left her “triggered.” Jackson pointed to an email where Siebel Newsom had actually sought out the meetup with Weinstein.

    Jackson told the jurors Weinstein was never even in the hotel room with the other woman he is charged with raping, an Italian model who in court went by Jane Doe 1. She testified that he attacked her after showing up uninvited to her hotel room during a Los Angeles film festival in 2013.

    “Jane Doe 1 is lying. Period,” Jackson said, pointing to the absence of evidence putting Weinstein at the scene. “Not a single witness can corroborate that Harvey Weinstein ever walked through that door.”

    He showed photos of Jane Doe 1 smiling as she interacted with director Quentin Tarantino on the following night of the festival, with Weinstein sitting just a few feet away.

    “This is not consistent with her having suffered the violence she suffered just hours before,” the lawyer said.

    Earlier on the night those pictures were taken, according to the allegations, Weinstein trapped model Lauren Young in a hotel bathroom, groped her and masturbated in front of her during what was supposed to be a meeting about a script she’d written.

    Jackson said the meeting was real but she had fabricated most of the rest, focusing on what he said were the impossible details of her being locked in the bathroom by a woman on the outside, and the room having a sliding door where photos proved it didn’t.

    “None of it makes sense, because she’s making it up,” Jackson said.

    The Associated Press does not generally name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly or agree to be identified through their lawyers, as those named in this story have done. All of the women Weinstein is charged with assaulting are going by Jane Doe in court.

    The prosecution is set to give its final rebuttal Friday morning, after which jurors will begin deliberations.

    ———

    Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

    ———

    For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

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  • Dancer says fear of Weinstein muted her sex assault response

    Dancer says fear of Weinstein muted her sex assault response

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    LOS ANGELES — An attorney for Harvey Weinstein on Friday repeatedly challenged a woman over why she didn’t raise more objections or leave the hotel room in Puerto Rico where she said he sexually assaulted her during a 2003 film shoot.

    Attorney Mark Werksman asked the woman, known during Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial only as Ashley M., whether she ever had a second thought where she said to herself, “I’m just going to walk right back out that door?”

    “I was worried,” she said. “I knew he was big and I didn’t know what to do,” she said.”

    The woman was a 22-year-old dancer on the Puerto Rico set of the film “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” which was produced by Weinstein’s company, Miramax.

    In her first day of testimony Thursday, Ashley M. said that she went with Weinstein to the hotel because she had been assured she was headed to a meeting to discuss future opportunities, but she said once they were alone, Weinstein pushed her on to a bed, straddled her, and masturbated.

    Werksman asked her whether she really didn’t expect anything sexual after Weinstein, according to her earlier testimony, brought up getting a “naked massage” from her during their first conversation at the set.

    She repeated that she had been reassured by the woman who was Weinstein’s assistant at the time that she would remain with them, and that he only wanted to discuss future projects.

    “I just basically did what I thought the people that were running the meeting wanted me to do. I really had no interest in being an actress. I had spent my life dancing,” she said. “I was engaged to be married. I wanted to finally start my life, maybe finally wanted to start a family at that time.”

    She and Weinstein entered the room but the assistant didn’t follow them, and instead closed the door behind them, she said.

    Ashley M. had said she wasn’t sure they were headed to a private room, that they might be going to an office or some other space at the hotel.

    Werksman asked whether she thought to herself, “’I’m now entering a hotel, this isn’t about work.’ Did that dawn on you at any moment?”

    She said she was being deferential because Weinstein was “in charge,” a feeling she got strongly from others on the set.

    Werksman asked her repeatedly why she didn’t protest more.

    “Did you verbalize or express the panic you were feeling out loud?” Werksman asked.

    She answered yes.

    She said earlier in her testimony that she knows she told him to stop, but that she kept most of her objections silent out of fear.

    “I was too scared,” she said.

    She said Weinstein told her “It’s OK, it’s not like we’re having sex.”

    Werksman asked her if she responded to that.

    “I just was trying to leave,” she said. “I was just hoping that nothing worse was going to happen.”

    Werksman asked how she had been dressed. She said she couldn’t remember, but doesn’t think she was in the orange dress that was her wardrobe for the shoot.

    Ashley M. is not one of the five women Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting. She is one of four others who have been allowed to testify at the trial about his propensity for such crimes.

    Weinstein has pleaded not guilty, and denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.

    The 70-year-old former movie mogul is already serving a 23-year sentence for a New York conviction that is under appeal.

    The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they have come forward publicly.

    Ashley M. told her story to the New York Times in October of 2017, when the newspaper’s accounts of women who say Weinstein sexually assaulted them put the movie executive at the center of the #MeToo movement.

    Her trial testimony was the first time she has told her story in a courtroom.

    Ashley M.’s mother and ex-husband were called to the stand after her. Both testified that she gave them accounts of her assault, giving very few details, in phone calls from Puerto Rico shortly after it happened.

    Jurors on Friday also examined pictures of Weinstein’s body to see if they matched descriptions provided by the witnesses.

    Six more accusers have yet to take the stand. The trial is expected to last another five weeks.

    ———

    Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

    ———

    For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

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  • Dancer says fear of Weinstein muted her sex assault response

    Dancer says fear of Weinstein muted her sex assault response

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    LOS ANGELES — An attorney for Harvey Weinstein on Friday repeatedly challenged a woman over why she didn’t raise more objections or leave the hotel room in Puerto Rico where she said he sexually assaulted her during a 2003 film shoot.

    Attorney Mark Werksman asked the woman, known during Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial only as Ashley M., whether she ever had a second thought where she said to herself, “I’m just going to walk right back out that door?”

    “I was worried,” she said. “I knew he was big and I didn’t know what to do,” she said.”

    The woman was a 22-year-old dancer on the Puerto Rico set of the film “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” which was produced by Weinstein’s company, Miramax.

    In her first day of testimony Thursday, Ashley M. said that she went with Weinstein to the hotel because she had been assured she was headed to a meeting to discuss future opportunities, but she said once they were alone, Weinstein pushed her on to a bed, straddled her, and masturbated.

    Werksman asked her whether she really didn’t expect anything sexual after Weinstein, according to her earlier testimony, brought up getting a “naked massage” from her during their first conversation at the set.

    She repeated that she had been reassured by the woman who was Weinstein’s assistant at the time that she would remain with them, and that he only wanted to discuss future projects.

    “I just basically did what I thought the people that were running the meeting wanted me to do. I really had no interest in being an actress. I had spent my life dancing,” she said. “I was engaged to be married. I wanted to finally start my life, maybe finally wanted to start a family at that time.”

    Weinstein’s assistant did not follow them into the room, but withdrew and closed the door, she said.

    She had said she wasn’t sure they were headed to a private room, that they might be going to an office or some other space at the hotel.

    Werksman asked whether she thought to herself, “I’m now entering a hotel, this isn’t about work. Did that dawn on you at any moment?”

    She said she was being deferential because Weinstein was “in charge,” a feeling she got strongly from others on the set.

    Werksman asked her repeatedly why she didn’t protest more.

    “Did you verbalize or express the panic you were feeling out loud?” Werksman asked.

    She answered yes.

    She said earlier in her testimony that she knows she told him to stop, but that she kept most of her objections silent out of fear.

    “I was too scared,” she said.

    She said Weinstein told her “It’s OK, it’s not like we’re having sex.”

    Werksman asked her if she responded to that.

    “I just was trying to leave,” she said. “I was just hoping that nothing worse was going to happen.”

    Werksman asked how she had been dressed. She said she couldn’t remember, but doesn’t think she was in the orange dress that was her wardrobe for the shoot.

    Ashley M. is not one of the five women Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting. She is one of four others who have been allowed to testify at the trial about his propensity for such crimes.

    Weinstein has pleaded not guilty, and denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.

    The 70-year-old former movie mogul is already serving a 23-year sentence for a New York conviction that is under appeal.

    The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they have come forward publicly.

    Ashley M. told her story to the New York Times in October of 2017, when the newspaper’s accounts of women who say Weinstein sexually assaulted them put the movie executive at the center of the #MeToo movement.

    Her trial testimony was the first time she has told her story in a courtroom.

    ———

    Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

    ———

    For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

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  • Los Angeles Council president resigns after racist remarks

    Los Angeles Council president resigns after racist remarks

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    LOS ANGELES — The president of the Los Angeles City Council resigned from the post Monday after she was heard making racist comments and other coarse remarks in a leaked recording of a conversation with other Latino leaders.

    Council President Nury Martinez issued an apology and expressed shame.

    “In the end, it is not my apologies that matter most; it will be the actions I take from this day forward. I hope that you will give me the opportunity to make amends,” she said in a statement. “Therefore, effective immediately I am resigning as President of the Los Angeles City Council.”

    The statement did not say she would resign her council seat. There was no immediate response to a call and email sent to her spokesperson.

    Martinez said in the recorded conversation that white Councilman Mike Bonin handled his young Black son as if he were an “accessory” and described the son as behaving “Parece changuito,” or “like a monkey,” the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday.

    Martinez also referred to Bonin as a “little bitch” and at another point mocked Oaxacans, the Times said.

    “I see a lot of little short dark people,” Martinez said in reference to a particular area of the largely Hispanic Koreatown neighborhood.

    “I was like, I don’t know where these people are from, I don’t know what village they came (from), how they got here,” Martinez said, adding “Tan feos” — “They’re ugly.”

    The recording’s content rocked the political establishment just weeks before elections for the mayor’s office and several council seats.

    Bonin and his husband, Sean Arian, issued a statement calling on Martinez, De León and Herrera to resign.

    “The entirety of the recorded conversation … displayed a repeated and vulgar anti-Black sentiment, and a coordinated effort to weaken Black political representation in Los Angeles,” they said.

    The conversation was recorded in October 2021, and other participants were Councilmembers Gil Cedillo and Kevin de León and Los Angeles County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera, the Times reported. The overall discussion was about frustrations with redistricting maps produced by a city commission.

    The Times reported that the approximately hourlong audio was posted on Reddit by a now-suspended user, and that it was unclear who recorded the audio and whether anyone else was present at the meeting.

    Martinez initially issued an apology after the Times article appeared online.

    “In a moment of intense frustration and anger, I let the situation get the best of me and I hold myself accountable for these comments. For that I am sorry,” she said.

    “The context of this conversation was concern over the redistricting process and concern about the potential negative impact it might have on communities of color,” she said. “My work speaks for itself. I’ve worked hard to lead this city through its most difficult time.”

    Martinez, whose district website describes her as “a glass-ceiling shattering leader who brings profound life experience as the proud daughter of working-class immigrants,” was elected to the council in 2013 and became the council’s first Latina president in 2020.

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  • Decipher Credit and First Corporate Solutions Announce Integration Partnership

    Decipher Credit and First Corporate Solutions Announce Integration Partnership

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    The integration partnership between Decipher Credit and First Corporate Solutions will provide shared users with access to increased due diligence automation and faster approval in commercial lending.

    Press Release



    updated: May 3, 2022

    Decipher Credit, the leading automation platform for specialty commercial lenders, announced its integration partnership with First Corporate Solutions to help its users accelerate the capture and onboarding of new clients and perform due diligence instantly. Shared users will be able to perform UCC search and filing automatically directly from the Decipher origination and underwriting platform and benefit from trusted First Corporate Solutions services.

    “We are pleased to partner with Decipher Credit to offer a turn-key solution for commercial lenders that are looking to streamline their lending approval workflow and close deals faster,” said Samuel Hon, CEO of First Corporate Solutions. “Decipher Credit is highly experienced and trusted within the factoring community and their on-the-go portal automates the processing of loan applications to mere seconds. We share a desire to build cutting-edge solutions that optimally serve the specialty lenders we have both worked with for numerous years.”

    “We are excited to partner with First Corporate Solutions,” said Raul Velarde, CEO of Decipher Credit. “It’s clear that our customers are looking for increased automation and to be able to accelerate UCC search and filing enables them to approve prospects faster and win more clients in a very competitive lending environment. First Corporate Solutions is also a leader in the factoring, asset-based lending, and commercial lending industry and we share many commonalities, including partnering with our clients to help them increase lending efficiencies and make better lending decisions.”

    “The need for integration of existing environments with a platform like Decipher is increasing so that lenders can cut down on manual tasks and quickly onboard new clients. The shared expertise in specialty lending and commitment to technology also make our partnership a clear win for both companies and their clients,” Mr. Velarde added.

    About Decipher Credit

    Decipher Credit is a financial technology company that empowers traditional lenders to offer the latest digital tools to streamline origination, accelerate underwriting and approval, and win more clients. The Decipher cloud-based platform gives commercial lenders access to sophisticated loan origination and risk management technology, with an easy and secure application portal, underwriting automation, risk scoring, and auto approval as well as document management with digital signature. A preferred vendor of the International Factoring Association, Decipher also provides credit and background reports, bank account data verification and monitoring as well as connections to accounting systems for instant financial spreading and accounts receivable and payables analysis. Its newest product, Fast Lane Freight, helps transportation factors automate every step of the origination and approval process, including UCC search and file and allows them to take on new carriers in seconds. For more information or to schedule a software demo, visit https://deciphercredit.com/. For more information on the Decipher Fast Lane Freight product, visit https://deciphercredit.com/freight-factoring-origination/

    About First Corporate Solutions
    First Corporate Solutions is a leader in global UCC and corporate risk management with 30 years of experience in the industry. FCS is committed to building robust solutions that streamline business transactions through the intuitive FICOSO Online platform and flexible API options. FCS delivers public records search, retrieval, filing, monitoring and portfolio management solutions with a commitment to accuracy and personalized customer service unmatched in the industry. As a preferred vendor of the International Factoring Association for the past 14 years, FCS has established itself as a trusted partner of legal and financial professionals to rely upon when perfecting and maintaining their security interests. For additional information, please visit https://ficoso.com/factoring/.

    Media Contact:
    Paula Claro 
    Marketing Director
    (301) 798-9778
    paula@deciphercredit.com
    https://deciphercredit.com/ 

    Source: Decipher Credit

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  • Trust Science and Inovatec Systems Team Up to Release World’s First End-to-End Loan Management Platform Powered by Alternative Credit Scores

    Trust Science and Inovatec Systems Team Up to Release World’s First End-to-End Loan Management Platform Powered by Alternative Credit Scores

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    Lenders now have the ability to reliably find, score, lend to and manage the loans of 64 million unbanked and under-banked consumers in the United States alone

    Press Release



    updated: Jun 12, 2019

    ​​Trust Science Inc., a leading provider of AI-powered credit scoring, and Inovatec Systems Corporation, a new breed of Loan Operating System (LOS) provider, announced today they will partner to release a fully automated lending platform that enables end-to-end loan management across the entire credit spectrum.

    Lenders can be up and running on a fully customized LOS and an AI-powered loan underwriting model within weeks, not months (or years).

    Trust Science CEO Evan Chrapko comments, “This partnership gives lenders the ability to accurately score and lend to an additional 64 million consumers in the U.S. alone, with unprecedented accuracy and speed. The end-to-end, customizable nature of Inovatec Systems’ LOS makes it a perfect partner for Trust Science and our API-based scoring solution.”

    Bryan Smith, VP sales & marketing at Inovatec, shares a similar sentiment. “With this partnership, Inovatec Systems will now be able to automate the powerful AI tools at Trust Science alongside traditional credit scoring and risk measurements. Our lenders will have instant access to the Trust Science Six°Score™ to determine creditworthiness based on alternative, uncorrelated data, generating simple and powerful results for a more complete risk assessment of the individual.” He continues, “The Trust Science tools will be integrated into our Compass Asset Finance (CAF) for credit and funding, driving more innovation and thinking differently.”

    Mark Eleoff, CEO of Eden Park Inc. and a customer of Trust Science and Inovatec Systems, remarks, “Both Trust Science and Inovatec Systems have proven themselves to be innovative, value-added and very customer centric in working with us to improve our credit decisions.”

    A BETA version of the integration has been underway for several months, and general release is expected in June.

    About Trust Science Inc.

    Trust Science provides AI-powered alternative credit scoring to lenders, helping them sift prime borrowers from wrongly scored subprime applicants. Trust Science gathers alternative unstructured data and consented mobile data using its patented (30-plus patents across six countries) data collection methods and builds custom underwriting models for short-term, installment, direct auto and indirect auto lenders. Lenders see increases in their loan origination volumes, reduction in default rates and double-digit ROI. For more information, please visit https://www.trustscience.com/.

    About Inovatec Systems Corp.

    Inovatec Systems Corporation provides industry-leading, cloud-based software solutions for any financial institution, any type of transaction. All solutions can be brought together in a single seamless and branded platform that can be opened to external partners and customers. Capture any marketplace – full, robust ecosystem to drive the online customer/lead to you, streamline and facilitate the processes of crediting, auditing, funding and income verification for financing applications plus full servicing and portfolio analytics in the leading-edge LMS. For more information, please visit https://www.inovatec.com/.

    Press Contacts:

    Bryan Smith
    Inovatec Systems Corp. | VP, Sales & Marketing
    bsmith@inovatec.com
    (647) 269-9449

    Bryan Katis
    Chief Product Officer, Trust Science
    bryan.katis@trustscience.com
    (678) 468-7391

    Source: Trust Science

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