'Scrubs' Writer Eric Weinberg on Trial for Raping Seven Women

Eric Weinberg, a writer and producer on "Scrubs" and "Californication," went on trial in Los Angeles on Thursday on 23 counts of rape and sexual assault involving seven women. He has remained in jail since 2022 awaiting trial.

Prosecutor Ariel Anson told jurors that Weinberg, 66, posed as an amateur photographer to lure the women to his home in Los Feliz, where he sexually assaulted them.

"The defendant had carefully created an image of himself," Anson said in her opening statement. "These women believed the defendant was this successful, kind family man. They believed he would uphold their boundaries … In reality the women were never safe."

The alleged assaults took place between 2014 and 2019. The seven accusers, identified in court only by their first names, will take the witness stand over a trial expected to last six to eight weeks. The women are expected to be accompanied by emotional support dogs as they testify. An eighth woman, whose allegations are not part of the charges, will also testify.

"He could be very charming and friendly and charismatic," Anson said. "He carefully used that mask and a pattern systematically with these women over and over."

Defense attorney Philip Cohen acknowledged in his opening statement that many jurors may already consider his client a "creep." He argued that this impression alone cannot produce a guilty verdict.

"When you take away the bias, the sympathy, the creep factor, and you look at what the law requires, they have a problem in this case," Cohen argued. "Is he a criminal? That is the question."

Both attorneys showed the jury explicit photographs Weinberg had taken of the accusers. In several images, Weinberg's hand grips the women by the throat.

"The reason we have these photographs is because the defendant documented and took photographs of the assaults as they were happening," Anson said.

After the photo shoots, Weinberg would give the women the images. Some asked him to delete them. One woman considered deleting them herself but decided against it, reasoning they might eventually serve as evidence for the police.

Cohen countered that to convict Weinberg of sexual assault, jurors must conclude he knew the women were afraid. The images, he argued, show Weinberg's perspective, and in some the women are smiling.

"What was Weinberg thinking?" Cohen asked. "There is not one indication that Weinberg knew of anybody's fear and took advantage of it."

Cohen also argued that the women's accounts had evolved over time, becoming more incriminating than what they initially told police. He noted that Weinberg's ex-wife had contacted some of the women and obtained court declarations from them to support her custody fight. The ex-wife, Cohen argued, wanted to "put Eric away" and help the women secure civil payouts.

"They strategize about how to do this," Cohen said.

The prosecution intends to call Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychologist frequently used in sexual assault cases to debunk "rape myths." Anson said Ziv's testimony would explain why the women at times appeared to placate Weinberg or downplay what had happened to them.

"They didn't fight or kick or scream," Anson said. "What they were trying to do was make sure they got out safely."

The trial, set to run through late spring, will test how a jury weighs Weinberg's own photographic record against the defense's argument that his state of mind cannot be proven.