Weinstein, Alexander Brothers, OneTaste: When Legal Reality Diverges from Media Narrative

By Juda Englemayer

HARVEY WEINSTEIN

Manhattan prosecutors today urged the court to reject Harvey Weinstein’s motion to vacate his conviction, dismissing juror-misconduct claims that two jurors themselves have now sworn under oath.

The same office that once argued for his retrial now refuses to even examine the fairness of his first trial-proof of how reputation has replaced rule of law as the metric of justice.

Comment (for media use):
“When prosecutors become more invested in defending a verdict than in defending due process, everyone loses faith in the system. This motion isn’t about Harvey’s fame – it’s about a juror who admitted misconduct and a court being asked to look away. Justice should never depend on who the defendant is.” – Juda Engelmayer

THE ALEXANDER BROTHERS

In Florida, a sweeping campaign of civil litigation against Oren and Tal Alexander – Many Cases – have now largely collapsed.

• 3 cases have been dismissed by the court
• 5 were voluntarily withdrawn after motions to dismiss were filed
• 2 are merely summonses-no complaint ever filed

What began as a tidal wave of accusations has been reduced to a handful of active filings, revealing the power imbalance between media optics and legal reality.

Comment (for media use):
“When facts are tested in court instead of headlines, truth tends to hold. The collapse of so many civil suits demonstrate what we’ve said all along-this was never justice, it was momentum. The Alexanders are standing firm, and the record now reflects it.” – Juda Engelmayer

ONETASTE / NICOLE DAEDONE & RACHEL CHERWITZ

Inside Brooklyn’s MDC, Nicole and Rachel continue to embody strength in the face of prosecutorial excess.

Once dismissed by other inmates, they’ve turned their dorm into what women there now call a “prison monastery.”

They lead an eight-week BOP-approved meditation program, a daily walking group, and a storytelling circle. Their work has helped women in prison find purpose and healing-one former street prostitute has already pledged to open a recovery center upon release.

Nicole has written 22 books, 13 of them already published; her next, Jailbirds in Flight, arrives December 15. Her memoir follows in March.

Their example reminds us that integrity and transformation can survive even inside a system determined to erase them.

A SYSTEM OFF COURSE

Across these stories-Weinstein, the Alexanders, and OneTaste-the pattern is unmistakable: the abuse of power, the collapse of objectivity, and the moralization of law.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), once intended to combat genuine exploitation, has become a prosecutorial weapon used to criminalize spirituality, intimacy, and consent. The press, too often eager to moralize, amplifies this misuse instead of examining it.

We are witnessing the criminalization of unpopular ideas-and the erosion of fair trial principles that should protect us all.

Yet amid it, there is resilience:

• Nicole and Rachel transforming incarceration into education.
• The Alexanders withstanding a manufactured civil onslaught.
• Harvey Weinstein still fighting for due process in a system allergic to introspection.

Justice must not depend on public taste.

Juda Engelmayer

Juda Engelmayer

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