Tennesee defense lawyer Steve Farese is representing Mark Giannini, who is accused of luring a woman to a job interview and raping her. The backstory from The Commercial Appeal:
A Shelby County businessman charged with raping a woman in 2014 after telling her she was interviewing for a job is scheduled for trial this week.
Mark Giannini, 51, who was an owner of the information technology firm Service Assurance and a former board member of the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Memphis, the Memphis Botanic Garden and the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, is charged with raping three women beginning in 2002. He has pleaded not guilty on all counts, and the first of his trials is set for this week. A jury was selected Monday and opening statements were scheduled to begin Tuesday.
Horrific, right? It gets worse.
Giannini's $3 million bond was revoked after he was accused of paying a person to try to bribe a victim. In that case, a woman reported that she met Giannini at a Kroger in East Shelby County, and he paid her $1,200. She was told to “either entrap (the victim) on video doing drugs or having sex, or in the alternative, to offer (her) $150,000 to drop the prosecution against Giannini,” according to court documents.
Now that his trial is underway, how does his lawyer defend against such charges? Well, by blaming women. All women, of course! You see, you dirty, lying, weak women will say anything to entrap a man. Read defense attorney Steve Farese’s defense to an all-female jury, from The Commercial Appeal in Tennessee:
4:30 p.m.: Earlier, Farese told the jury of 11 women and three men that women can be especially good at lying "because they're the weaker sex." He added that he has daughters and he believes them, if somebody does something wrong to them he'll take action. "But how do we know when they're lying?" Says to consider have they lied before and do they have anything to gain by lying.
Full quote:
“People can be very good at lying. Women can be especially good at it because they’re the weaker sex and we ... and we want to protect them and not have anybody take advantage of them at least I do.”
He appeared to say “that’s what the book says” referencing the weaker sex comment.
The book? Yes, the Bible as a defense for rape. The rest of the defense is even more gross than that, Farese dragging the accuser through every disgusting mud pit possible. In the end, his housekeeper may be sinking his case the most:
The housekeeper testified Giannini's behavior was erratic in the ensuing days — that he destroyed his phone, told her to get rid of it, gets a new phone and that he asked her to research countries that don't extradite to the United States. He asks her to go to Waffle House to spy on the victim to see what she's saying, Banti says.
He says he's not going to jail and would go to Florida to get a ship captain to take him to another country, Banti tells the jury.
Or is she another lying woman too?
You can see Farese make the case in the video below. Note the audible gasp when he makes the ridiculous claims: