As the world waits for the verdict on Harvey Weinstein, an incident flicked by so quickly on Friday you may have missed it. That Juror 11, tasked with finding Weinstein guilty of rape or predatory sexual assault at the Manhattan court, had read several books about predatory men and marked them on Goodreads during the trial. Juror 11 was brought out, questioned, and returned to the jury. The judge didn’t even check her Goodreads account himself. If he had, he would have seen the rest of her account.
But later that day, Weinstein’s Defense lawyers Rotunno & Giralamo revealed the date and the full content of a book review Juror 11 had written of My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell, a book about child abuse and predatory men, posted during the trial (which, it could be argued, goes against the trial rules that jurors must not read media during the trial, nor anything along the same theme as the case). She had also marked “Currently Reading” Le Consentement by Vanessa Springora. “Le Consentement” is a creative memoir loosely based on, you’ve guessed it, a relationship the 15-year-old author had with a predatory older man.
Over the weekend, this Goodreads account was tracked down by a blogger named Stormcntr on Lucianne.com, and her identity revealed. The review is still published, so the world can see Juror 11 is indeed Amanda Brainerd, a forty-something author whose book “Age of Consent” comes out on Viking in July 2020. Her book, according to her Goodreads, is about three women “affected by their sexual relationships with older men and the power adults hold over them, even as the young women begin to assert their independence.” So, again, young women being manipulated by an older man…
It seems bizarre that the Defense did not know about Brainerd’s book, but knew about the book review. Why did they not argue that she cannot vote impartially, i.e. vote Not Guilty, in any case, when her #MeToo story comes out in July? How would her publishers market a book if Weinstein walks free with her on the jury? How did this juror pass the rigorous tests said to have been carried out for this incredibly important trial? How will this affect the sales of the #MeToo books cited in this incident, as well as her own?
We will know all in a few hours.
Leave A Comment