The lawyers of Ms. Huett, a model, actress, and gender equality activist, and a handful of other women who voted against the deal are considering an appeal. They don’t want to exclude survivors from participating in the deal, they said, but have also objected to the grouping of women on rape allegations whose cases fall under the statute of limitations, along with people who claim to have been molested years ago.
The victims should have been divided into classes based on the severity of their allegations, said Thomas P. Giuffra, a lawyer implicated in the case. Otherwise, “someone who has been raped has the same voice as someone who yelled Harvey Weinstein in the face,” which the producer is known to regularly do to men and women.
Giuffra’s client, Alexandra Canosa, whose lawsuit accused Weinstein of raping her, was in the midst of a nine-hour filing on her case when the bankruptcy court’s judgment was passed, he said. A deposit for Bob Weinstein was scheduled for Wednesday, but the district judge on the case canceled it and asked Ms. Canosa to make an immediate decision on joining the settlement, Mr. Giuffra said, a quick turnaround he deemed “honestly shocking” designated for all of us. “
Mr. Giuffra said that his client would not take part in the settlement with immediate effect, also because the result is still unclear. “She doesn’t know what she’s getting and she won’t know until she goes through the application process,” he said. “How can you say that you will accept something before you know what it is?”
Beth Fegan, an attorney for several women who supported the settlement, said in a statement that Mr. Weinstein “did incurable damage through decades of predatory sexual abuse.” The fund enables its clients, Louisette Geiss, Sarah Ann Masse and Melissa Thompson, “to apply for reasonable financial compensation for their injuries in a confidential process.”
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