Harvey Weinstein Prosecutors Start LA Rape Trial With Graphic Quotes From 8 Different Accusers
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Los Angeles prosecutors launched their rape case against Harvey Weinstein on Monday with an opening statement that included detailed descriptions of the eight accusers who will testify in the criminal trial and several graphic examples from their recollections.
“You’re going to hear from eight different women who were assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles,” said Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson. Four are from Los Angeles, and the other four from outside the area, he said, adding that they each came forward independently.
Weinstein, who has denied any wrongdoing, was in court and made no visible reaction as Thompson read off a sampling of statements from the eight women:
“He put his hand on my chest and started masturbating.”
“He put his penis in my mouth … I was crying and my tears, saliva … and he was trying to keep his penis in my mouth … .”
“He undressed me and fondled my breasts.”
“Please stop. I don’t want this. What are you doing?”
Thompson also read statements from the women speaking to Weinstein’s intimidating stature, presence and power in the entertainment industry at the time of the encounters, which span 2004-2013.
“He’s big, he’s broad, he’s overweight … he’s domineering.”
“Harvey had so much power in the industry … I was scared of his bad side.”
“He was the king.”
The defense was on deck to present its opening statement after a short break Thursday.
Weinstein faces 11 charges of sexual assault from allegations spanning from 2004-2013. The trial is expected to last into December after a two-week jury selection process seated a panel last Thursday of nine men and three women. Weinstein could face up to 140 years in prison if convicted.
He is already serving 23 years in a New York prison for criminal first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, a conviction he has been granted the right to appeal. Weinstein has maintained his innocence since the New York Times first published accusations against him five years ago this month.
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Prosecutors gave detailed witness descriptions in their opening statements, identifying each of the seven remaining women with shortened names and pseudonyms. Thompson said only one – “Ambra B.” – reported an assault to police, with the rest coming forward after #MeToo broke in 2017, but that all described their assaults to friends:
Of the women slated to testify against Weinstein, only one is being publicly named – that being Jane Doe No. 4, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who self-identified as the trial was just beginning. Newsom says during her time as an actress, she was lured to Weinstein’s room under pretense of a business meeting and assaulted in 2005.
Thompson said Newsom had met Weinstein on a couple of social occasions before he called her for a meeting at the Peninsula. Once in his room, Thompson said Weinstein emerged from the bathroom in only a robe, then forced her onto a bed and began to assault her as she was “crying and shaking.”
He said Newsom and the other victims will be able to corroborate “unique things about his body.”
“What I’m referring to is the result of a surgery that the defendant had in 1999. That surgery caused pretty noticeable scarring, and you’ll see the pictures,” Thompson said. “Because of an infection, his testicles were actually taken from his scrotum and put into his inner thighs.”
Other witnesses descriptions included:
Ambra B., who met Weinstein at Radio City Music Hall in 2015 and later went to his office, where she claims Weinstein put his hand on her breast and up her skirt. She went straight to the NYPD, which recorded her later interactions with Weinstein and eventually arrested him based on those recordings.
Ashley M., who was cast as a dancer in the Miramax sequel to “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” and met Weinstein on the set in 2003. He “insisted she get in a car” with him and a female aide, who made her feel comfortable – until they would up alone at the Ritz-Carlton, where she says Weinstein groped her, forced her onto a bed, grabbed her breasts and masturbated on her face and chest.
Jane Doe No. 1, a model and actress from Italy who came to Los Angeles in 2013 for the Italia Film Festival and Academy Awards. She said Weinstein showed up unannounced at her hotel room, being noisy at her door while she was getting undressed. Embarrassed about the noise, she let him in, and he forced her onto the bed and assaulted her, despite her crying and attempts to “show him pictures of her kids.” He then pushed her over the bathroom sink and raped her.
Natassia M., who says she briefly interacted with Weinstein at a BAFTA party in 2008, only to find him banging on her hotel room door later that night as she was readying for bed. She says he entered, forced her into bed and raped her, then “calmly washed his hands” and left the room at the Sanderson Hotel.
Jane Doe No. 2 also alleges an assault during the 2013 Italia Film Festival. The 23-year-old model and aspiring screenwriter who took a meeting with Weinstein at the Montage Hotel through a woman named Claudia Salinas. Once the meeting moved from the restaurant upstairs, she says Salinas left them in a bathroom and “shut the door behind her” on the way out, whereupon Weinstein “jumped into the shower” and groped and assaulted her while masturbating.
Jane Doe 3 is a licensed massage therapist who started working with Weinstein in 2010. After a session Weinstein followed her into a restroom, backed her in a corner, groped her and masturbated onto the floor. Weinstein told her “this was completely normal, he’d done it with so many people,” Thompson said.
Kelly S was an actor in 1991 who met Weinstein at the Toronto Film Festival. She said she loudly cried and asked him to stop while he raped and assaulted her in a hotel room. Seventeen years later, she ran into him again in Toronto and agreed to meet him to confront him about the ’91 incident, only to have him grope and assault her again while he masturbated.
