https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8038717/Harvey-Weinstein-guilty-New-York-rape-trial.htmlHarvey Weinstein is found guilty of criminal sexual assault and rape and faces up to 29 years in prison BUT is cleared of the three most serious charges in landmark #MeToo trial
Harvey Weinstein was found guilty by a New York jury on Monday of third-degree rape and a criminal sexual act
He was convicted of sexually assaulting ex-production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a hotel room in 2013
Weinstein was acquitted of the two most serious counts of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape
He now faces up to 29 years in prison on the two charges
Weinstein was handcuffed in court before being led away from where he will be remanded in custody until his March 11 sentencing
His defense lawyer Donna Rotunno said Weinstein took the verdict 'like a man' and that they were 'absolutely appealing' the conviction
Outside of court, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance praised jurors for their verdict and said Weinstein was finally being held accountable
By Emily Crane and Daniel Bates In Manhattan Criminal Court For Dailymail.com
Published: 16:46, 24 February 2020 | Updated: 18:32, 24 February 2020
Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of third-degree rape and a criminal sexual act but was acquitted of being a serial sexual predator in his high profile New York trial. The disgraced Hollywood producer was convicted by a jury on Monday of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his apartment in 2006 and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a hotel room in 2013. Weinstein was acquitted of the two most serious counts of predatory sexual assault, which carried a potential life sentence. He was also found not guilty of first-degree rape in relation to Mann. He now faces up to 29 years in prison on the two charges. Weinstein was flanked by several court security officers and did not react when the jury of seven men and five women handed down their verdict after five days of deliberations. The disgraced Hollywood producer was handcuffed in court before being led away. He has been remanded in custody until his March 11 sentencing and will likely be held at the grim Rikers Island prison in New York City. His lawyer Donna Rutonno asked the judge for Weinstein to be placed under house arrest instead of prison due to his medical conditions. When the judge denied the request, Weinstein's lawyer asked for him to be held in the prison's medical unit. Outside court, Rotunno said Weinstein took the verdict 'like a man' and that they were 'absolutely appealing' the conviction.
Harvey Weinstein: The verdict
Third-degree rape - Jessica Mann: Guilty. Facing four years in prison
Criminal sexual act - Mimi Haleyi: Guilty. Facing 25 years in prison
Predatory sexual assault - Jessica Mann and Annabella Sciorra: Not guilty. Carried a life sentence
Predatory sexual assault - Mimi Haleyi and Annabella Sciorra: Not guilty. Carried a life sentence
First-degree rape - Jessica Mann: Not guilty. Carried a sentence of 25 years
'Harvey is very strong. Harvey is unbelievably strong. He took it like a man. He knows that we will continue to fight for him and knows that this is not over,' she said.
'It is absolutely horrible for me to watch my client be taken into custody. We don't feel good about that at all. Obviously, this is a bittersweet day. We are disappointed. We knew we came in and we were down 35-0 on the day that we started this trial. The jurors came in knowing everything they could know about this case. We couldn't find a juror who had never heard of Harvey Weinstein.'
Meanwhile, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance praised jurors for their verdict and said Weinstein was finally being held accountable. He praised the six accusers and the female prosecutor in the case as women who 'pulled our justice system into the 21st century by declaring that rape is rape and sexual assault is sexual assault no matter what'. Rape is rape whether it's committed by a stranger in a dark alley or by an intimate partner in a working relationship. It's rape whether it's committed by an indigent person or by a man of power, prestige, and privilege,' he said.
'Rape is rape whether the survivor report within an hour, a year or perhaps never. It's rape despite the complicated dynamics of power and consent after an assault. It' rape even if there is no physical evidence and even if it happened a long time ago. This is the new landscape for survivors of sexual assault in America I believe and this is a new day.'
The district attorney abhorred Weinstein as a 'vicious, serial sexual predator' who 'used his power to threaten, rape, assault, trick, humiliate and silence' victims. Vance said the DA's office wasn't disappointed that Weinstein was acquitted of three of the charges he faced. ‘I am certainly not dissatisfied by the verdict. I think this was a very difficult case, a very challenging case and a case that really moved our understanding of what sexual assault is, where it can occur...' he said.
'By no means am I disappointed with the jury’s unanimous statement that Harvey Weinstein is guilty of sexual assault and rape.'
In total, Weinstein was charged with five counts including first and third-degree rape for Mann and a criminal sexual act for Haleyi's forcible oral sex allegation. He was also charged with predatory sexual assault for both women. The predatory sexual assault charge, which is the most serious, incorporated Sopranos actress Anabella Sciorra's allegation that she was raped by Weinstein in the mid-1990s. Sciorra's allegation was too old to be charged on its own because of the statute of limitations, but jurors had to consider it as the basis of the two counts of predatory sexual assault. To convict Weinstein of that charge, jurors had to agree on two things: That Weinstein raped Sciorra and that he committed one of the other charged offenses related to Mann or Haleyi. The verdict means that the jury did not believe Sciorra's testimony. It followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation and lewd propositions. Three other women costume designer Dawn Dunning, model Tarale Wulff, and actress Lauren Marie Young were also called to testify during the trial that Weinstein allegedly groped and sexually assaulted them. Their accusations were not the basis of any charges but they were brought in to help prosecutors show Weinstein had a particular intention or showed a signature behavior pattern when he invited women to meet with him. During the trial, prosecutors argued he was turned on by the fear in his accusers' eyes, while his defense team painted the case against him as a 'sinister tale' and claimed the allegations were 'regret renamed as rape'.
Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct allegations that became the catalyst for the #MeToo movement.
Jessica Mann gave a vivid description of Weinstein's 'deformed' naked body and told of how he bellowed 'you owe me!' before dragging her into a bedroom
GUILTY: Third-degree rape. NOT GUILTY: First-degree rape, predatory sexual assault
Jessica Mann, one of the two key accusers in Harvey Weinstein's case, testified that he raped her twice - in New York and Los Angeles - during an 'extremely degrading' relationship with the producer that lasted for years. Mann told the court that she first met Weinstein at a party in late 2012 or early 2013 after she moved from Washington state to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career but said she didn't know who he was when he introduced himself. When he pulled her aside later, he told her he was interested in her as an actress but not her Brazilian roommate Talita Maia who she came to the party with. Mann said she felt 'guilty' but gave Weinstein her number. When she met Weinstein at a bookstore to learn about movie-business history, Weinstein told her that she 'looked prettier than Natalie Portman' and that he wanted her to read for a top role in a vampire film. A casting director later testified that, despite Weinstein's promises, Mann was too old and tall to fit the role and that it had already been cast at the time. She later ended up in his suite at a Los Angeles hotel after what she thought was a professional dinner where she said Weinstein pressured her into giving him a back massage on the bed with his shirt off. Mann said Weinstein started offering her invitations to events and, on one occasion, asked her and her roommate to his hotel suite to give them the vampire script he had been talking about even though it had already been cast. She said Weinstein started undressing before going into the bedroom and calling her name. When she went to the bedroom, she said he grabbed her arm, closed the door and started 'trying to kiss me like crazy'.
THE CHARGES AGAINST WEINSTEIN EXPLAINED
What was Weinstein accused of Harvey Weinstein was accused of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on film production assistant Mimi Haleyi in his apartment in 2006.
What are the FIVE charges he faced: Jessica Mann: First-degree rape and third-degree rape
The first-degree charge alleges Weinstein used physical force or an implied or expressed threat that led the alleged victim to fear immediate death or injury. The third-degree charge alleges only that there was a lack of consent.
Mimi Haleyi: Criminal sexual act for her forced oral sex allegation. Two counts of predatory sexual assault, one for each of the charged acts.
How the predatory sexual assault charges work: Under New York law, one way a person can be found guilty of predatory sexual assault is if he or she committed certain sex offenses in the past, even if that conduct didn't result in criminal charges. In Weinstein's case, prosecutors alleged that he raped Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra in late 1993 or early 1994 an accusation that is too old to be the basis for criminal charges on its own because of the statute of limitations.
The verdict: The jury convicted Weinstein of third-degree rape for Mann. He was found guilty of a criminal sexual act for Haleyi. Weinstein was found not guilty of the two counts of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape for Mann. To find him guilty of predatory sexual assault, the jury had to believe Sciorra's allegations and that he committed one of the other charged offenses related to Mann or Haleyi.
How much time could he face?
The criminal sex act charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison. Third-degree rape carries a maximum sentence of 4 years in prison.
Why did three other accusers testify at trial: Three other women costume designer Dawn Dunning, model Tarale Wulff, and actress Lauren Marie Young testified they were enticed into meeting Weinstein for professional reasons and then groped or raped. Their accusations were not the basis of any charges but they were brought in to help prosecutors show Weinstein showed a signature behavior pattern. Under New York state law, they are known as 'Molineux' witnesses.
Mann said she tussled with him and he grew increasingly angry before saying: 'I'm not letting you leave until I do something for you'.
Mann told jurors that Weinstein then performed oral sex on her. She said she feigned orgasm to get herself out of the encounter. 'I sort of locked up and got really quiet. I was worried about my friend out there by herself. I faked an orgasm to get out of it. He asked me how it was if I liked it. I was nervous, so I told him it was the best I ever had,' she testified.
Mann said she then started having a twisted relationship with the mogul in which they had multiple consensual sexual encounters, including a failed threesome. 'I was confused after what happened and I made a decision to be in a relationship with him,' she said.
Mann said that while she wasn't sexually attracted to Weinstein, she felt compassion for him and wanted his approval. The failed threesome occurred in February 2013 when Weinstein had Mann meet him and actress Emanuela Postacchini at a Los Angeles hotel and he tried to persuade the women to have sex with him. Postacchini, who was called as a prosecution witness, later told jurors that Mann went into the bathroom and was 'crying in the fetal position on the ground'. Mann testified that the rape occurred a month later when she was staying at the Doubletree Metropolitan Hotel in Manhattan with friends ahead of a breakfast meeting with Weinstein. She said she panicked when she saw Weinstein checking in early. Mann claims that Weinstein told her to not embarrass him and ordered her to go upstairs to his hotel room. She claimed she tried to get out of the room twice but Weinstein blocked her and ordered her to undress. Mann said he emerged from the bathroom naked and then raped her on the bed. Mann said during her testimony that she found a needle in a trash can after and believed, after some research, that he had injected himself with an erection-inducing drug. She admitted that she continued to see Weinstein after this incident but tried to avoid physical contact. Mann accused Weinstein of raping her again eight months later when she was working as a hairdresser at a Los Angeles hotel after she told him she was dating an actor.
Weinstein still faces sex crime charges in Los Angeles and civil lawsuits from dozens of women
Separate from the New York trial, Weinstein has also been charged in Los Angeles with the sexual assault of two women in 2013. He is charged with raping one woman and sexually assaulting the other on consecutive nights. The charges were announced the night before his New York rape trial started. Weinstein is expected to appear in a Los Angeles court to hear the charges regardless of the New York trial's outcome. Los Angeles prosecutors said Weinstein and his unidentified accuser attended a Hollywood film festival on February 17, 2013. After the woman returned to her hotel room, Weinstein knocked at her door and she let him in. They spoke briefly before she alleged he attacked and raped her. Prosecutors said the woman delayed disclosing the alleged assault because, in part, Weinstein threatened her life. The next evening, the second accuser model and actress Lauren Marie Young who testified in New York said she went to Weinstein's hotel room with an acquaintance of hers following a business meeting. The court documents say she unwittingly followed Weinstein into the bathroom and the acquaintance shut the door behind her. Weinstein stripped naked, took a brief shower, stripped the alleged victim naked and then masturbated before releasing her. He faces up to 28 years in California prison if convicted on the charges.
He flew into a rage and screamed 'You owe me one more time!'.
He told her 'I don't have time for games' before attacking her, she said.
'Okay, now go have your relationship,' he told her, according to her testimony.
His apology: 'I just find you so attractive, I couldn't resist.'
During her testimony, Mann was asked by a prosecutor to describe Weinstein's body. She said she didn't believe he had testicles and his penis looked like a vagina. She also said that when she first saw him naked she thought Weinstein was 'physically deformed or intersex' and may have been a burn victim due to 'extreme scarring' on his stomach. The jury was shown naked photos of Weinstein to corroborate Mann's description of his body. The photos, which were only shown to jurors, were taken by a Manhattan District Attorney's office photographer on June 18, 2018. As he left the court that day, Weinstein was asked by a journalist: 'Were those nude photos of you that the jury looked at?'
Weinstein laughed and turned to one of his lawyers and said: 'No, it was Playboy'.
Mann testified for three days, more than any other accuser, and broke down during an intense cross-examination. After losing her composure at one point, Mann could be heard screaming in a side room of the court. Mann admitted during her testimony that she had kept in touch with Weinstein by sending him flattering emails because 'his ego was so fragile'. She said it 'made me feel safe, worshipping him in this sense I wanted to be perceived as innocent and naive.'
The defense said Mann sent Weinstein warm emails that said things like 'Miss you, big guy.'
Not once, in more than 400 messages between the two, did the woman accuse Weinstein of harming her, his lawyers said. Asked why she didn't break off contact with Weinstein at the first sign of trouble, Mann said she didn't want to offend him. But defense lawyer Donna Rotunno asked whether it was really because the woman 'wanted to benefit from the power he had.' She said her relationship with the then-married Weinstein was more complicated than that but defiantly declared: 'He is my rapist.'
The defense later called her friend and former roommate, Talita Maia, who claimed Mann didn't show any signs of distress on the day Weinstein allegedly raped her in New York. Maia was with Mann in New York and said nothing seemed amiss when they met Weinstein for breakfast after the alleged rape, she testified. She told the jury she spent the rest of that day with Mann and she never mentioned the alleged attack. Maia said Mann 'spoke highly' of Weinstein during her relationship with him, even calling him her 'spiritual soulmate' at one point. 'She seemed to really like him as a person,' Maia said.
'I told him I'm on my period': Project Runway assistant Mimi Haleyi told the jury that Weinstein pulled out her tampon and forcibly gave her oral sex in his apartment
GUILTY: Criminal sexual act. NOT GUILTY: Predatory sexual assault
Former Project Runway production assistant Mimi Haleyi, the woman Harvey Weinstein went on trial on charges of sexually assaulting her, recounted during her testimony how the film mogul forcibly performed oral sex on her while she had her period at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. 'I was kicking, I was pushing, I was trying to get away from his grip,' the now 42-year-old testified. 'He held me down and kept pushing me down to the bed.'
She told jurors she thought she was being raped and wondered: 'If I scream rape, will someone hear me?'
She said her relationship with the then-married Weinstein was more complicated than that but defiantly declared: 'He is my rapist.'
The defense later called her friend and former roommate, Talita Maia, who claimed Mann didn't show any signs of distress on the day Weinstein allegedly raped her in New York.
Maia was with Mann in New York and said nothing seemed amiss when they met Weinstein for breakfast after the alleged rape, she testified. She told the jury she spent the rest of that day with Mann and she never mentioned the alleged attack.
Maia said Mann 'spoke highly' of Weinstein during her relationship with him, even calling him her 'spiritual soulmate' at one point.
'She seemed to really like him as a person,' Maia said.
'I told him I'm on my period': Project Runway assistant Mimi Haleyi told the jury that Weinstein pulled out her tampon and forcibly gave her oral sex in his apartment
GUILTY: Criminal sexual act. NOT GUILTY: Predatory sexual assault
Former Project Runway production assistant Mimi Haleyi, the woman Harvey Weinstein went on trial on charges of sexually assaulting her, recounted during her testimony how the film mogul forcibly performed oral sex on her while she had her period at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. 'I was kicking, I was pushing, I was trying to get away from his grip,' the now 42-year-old testified. 'He held me down and kept pushing me down to the bed.'
She told jurors she thought she was being raped and wondered: 'If I scream rape, will someone hear me?'
She said she 'just felt like an idiot' for letting Weinstein convince her to meet again, but thought to see him could help her regain power as she tried to make sense of the alleged assault. She said she didn't want to be intimate at that time but didn't think Weinstein forced her to have sex. Weinstein's lawyers suggested that episode was evidence he didn't coerce her during the first encounter either. Haleyi's former roommate, Elizabeth Entin, later took to the stand to corroborate her testimony about the alleged sexual assault. Entin said Haleyi had told her about the encounter a short time after it happened. She said Haleyi was anxious and pacing as she recounted telling Weinstein: 'No. No.'
She said she told Haleyi: 'That sounds like rape. I said why don't we call a lawyer. She still seemed very distraught and was shaking and walked away and didn't want to talk about it. She felt like she couldn't talk and wasn't very present.'
Entin testified that her friend changed after the alleged assault. Haleyi, the given name is Miriam Haley, changed her name due to public scrutiny she faced after coming forward in October 2017 with the Weinstein allegations. On cross-examination by Weinstein's lawyer, Donna Rotunno, Entin recalled thinking at first that it was just 'stupid' that Weinstein kept showing up unannounced at their apartment in the East Village. 'Because this older guy was trying to get your friend? Correct?' Rotunno asked.
'Correct,' Entin said.
'And you thought it funny?' Rotnunno asked.
'We did, at the time,' Entin said, recalling how her pet Chihuahua, Peanut, once chased Weinstein around the apartment after he barged in and demanded Haleyi go to Paris with him.
Entin said they viewed Weinstein 'as a pathetic older man trying really hard to hit on' Haleyi.
As Weinstein left the courtroom that day, a reporter in the hall asked: 'Mr. Weinstein, are you afraid of Chihuahuas?' Weinstein smiled and said: 'Do I look like I'm afraid of Chihuahuas?'.
Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra accused Weinstein of raping her, sending her chocolate penises and Valium and turned up at her Cannes hotel room with baby oil
NOT GUILTY: Predatory sexual assault for Mann and Haleyi
Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who was the first accuser to take the stand, was brought in to testify about Weinstein allegedly raping her in her Manhattan apartment in the mid-1990s. Weinstein is not charged with attacking Sciorra but her testimony is a crucial part of the predatory sexual assault charges, which require prosecutors to establish a pattern of serious sex crimes against multiple women. Her accusation is too old to be the basis for criminal charges on its own due to the statute of limitations. Sciorra said she first met Weinstein at an industry event in Los Angeles in 1990 or 1991. By 1993, she had starred in one of his company's movies, the romantic comedy The Night We Never Met. Sciorra told the jury that the burly Weinstein barged uninvited into her apartment in the winter of 1993 or 1994 and raped her after dropping her off from a movie-business dinner with actress Uma Thurman and other industry figures. He threw her on a bed and forced himself on her as she tried to fight him off by kicking and punching him, she said. Sciorra told the jury that eventually she 'couldn't fight anymore because he had my hands locked' and that Weinstein told her he had 'perfect timing' after ejaculating on her nightgown. Recounting an accusation she said she kept largely secret for decades, Sciorra testified that after raping her, Weinstein went on to try to perform oral sex on her, saying: 'This is for you' as her body 'shut down'.
'It was just so disgusting that my body started to shake in a way that was very unusual. I didn't even really know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something,' she said. 'I'm not sure if I fainted or fell asleep or blacked out, but I woke up on the floor with my nightgown kind of up and I didn't know if something else had happened.'
At other points in the 1990s, Sciorra said that Weinstein sent her packages with Valium and a box of chocolate penises and turned up early one morning at her Cannes Film Festival hotel room in his underwear with the body oil and the videotape. She said he left after she frantically pushed buttons on the room phone to summon help. Sciorra said that roughly a month later, she ran into him and confronted him about what happened and he replied: 'That's what all the nice Catholic girls say.'
She claimed Weinstein then leaned toward her and added menacingly: 'This remains between you and I.'
'His eyes went black and I thought he was going to hit me right there,' Sciorra testified.
Afterward, she spiraled into cutting herself and drinking heavily, she told the jury. She said she didn't tell anyone at first about the alleged rape, not even her brothers, saying: 'I wanted to pretend it never happened I wanted to get back to my life.'
Her friend and fashion model Kara Young testified that a fidgety Sciorra 'seemed a mess' with long cuts on her legs when the two watched the Academy Awards together in 1994. Do the Right Thing actress Rosie Perez also testified during the trial that her friend Sciorra told her in the mid-1990s that Weinstein had raped her but that she couldn't go to the police because 'he'd destroy me'.
Perez said her friend Sciorra had told at some point in 1993, her voice shaking on the phone, that something had happened to her: 'I think it was rape.'
Perez said she asked if Sciorra knew who had attacked her, but Sciorra wouldn't say at the time. But months later, on another phone call from London, she said Weinstein was harassing her and she was scared. She testified that they both started crying after she said to Sciorra: 'He's the one that raped you'.
Sciorra later acted in another Weinstein-produced picture, 1997′s Cop Land but she said she didn't realize when auditioning that his studio was involved. Weinstein's lawyers sought to sow doubts about Sciorra's story, raising questions about her actions after the alleged rape and asking whether she had once described the encounter as 'awkward sex', which she denied.
During cross-examination, Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno noted that Sciorra never went to police or a doctor about the alleged rape. 'At the time, I didn't understand that that was rape,' Sciorra said.
She testified earlier that she once thought rape was a crime of strangers. 'I thought he was an okay guy. I felt confused. I felt like I wished I never opened the door,' she said.
Rotunno also suggested that Sciorra's judgment and recollection were clouded by drinking but the actress replied that she remembered having only a glass of wine with dinner. Weinstein's defense played a 1997 clip of Sciorra playfully telling late-night host David Letterman that she sometimes had fun with the media by making up stories such as her father raising iguanas for circuses. Sciorra said she would never lie about something as serious as sexual assault. The defense also highlighted an August 2017 text message in which Sciorra told a friend she was broke and was 'hoping Harvey has a job for me'.
The actress said she was just 'fishing' to try to find out through the friend whether Weinstein knew that a reporter had gotten wind of her accusations, which were first published in The New Yorker two months later.
Cocktail waitress Tarale Wulff claimed Weinstein masturbated in front of her at a New York club then raped her in his apartment
Former cocktail waitress and aspiring actress Tarale Wulff testified that Harvey Weinstein masturbated in front of her while she was working at the upscale New York club Cipriani and later raped her at his New York City apartment in 2005. She was one of three women brought in to testify about encounters separate from the crimes Weinstein was accused of committing to try to establish his motive and a signature pattern of behavior that could bolster the main accusers' claims. Wulff claimed Weinstein, who she met at the members-only club where she worked, raped her at his New York City apartment after luring her there in 2005 with promises of an audition for a film role. She described the much larger Weinstein grabbing her by the arm, pushing her onto a bed and spurning her pleas to stop with reassurances that she shouldn't worry because he'd had a vasectomy. Wulff, now 43 and a model, said she froze as he continued, thinking that would make it 'easier to get through, to get past it'.
She testified that on an occasion before the alleged rape, Weinstein grabbed her arm as she served cocktails at one of his usual Manhattan haunts, led her toward a darkened terrace and started masturbating. Wulff said she froze and scooted around him to go back to the bar. Weinstein's lawyers raised doubts about Wulff's recollection after she disclosed that she had worked with a therapist for a year to fill gaps in her memory. Speaking to reporters later, Wulff's lawyer called that line of questioning a 'red herring' and said her memory of being raped has never altered.
Weinstein put his hand up my skirt and tried trading movie roles for threesomes by claiming Salma Hayek and Charlize Theron had done the same, aspiring actress Dawn Dunning told the jury
Dawn Dunning, an aspiring actress, told jurors that Harvey Weinstein put his hand up her skirt and fondled her genitals during what was supposed to be a 2004 meeting about her fledgling career and later tried trading movie roles for three-way sex with him and his assistant. Dunning told jurors she met Weinstein while waiting tables at a Manhattan nightspot where bottle service was a trendy indulgence for the rich and famous. Weinstein immediately appeared to take an interest in her acting career, she said, and invited her to a lunch meeting where noting his infamous temper, she said he was 'on the phone a lot yelling at people'.
Dunning said several meetings followed, including one at a hotel where Weinstein was using a suite as a temporary office when she was 24. Weinstein led her into a bedroom at one point and put his hand up her skirt, she said. 'He just started talking really fast. He said, 'Don't make a big deal about this. It will never happen again,' she told the jury.
Dunning said she 'just kind of gave him the benefit of the doubt' and didn't scream or tell anyone because she was embarrassed and didn't want to be a victim. She said she later agreed to meet Weinstein at a cigar bar but that an assistant took her to a suite where the producer was standing in a bathrobe. She said Weinstein showed her a contract for three movie roles she would get on the condition she had 'a threesome with his assistant'. Dunning laughed thinking he was kidding and had a 'crass sense of humor.' 'But when I started laughing, he got really angry and started screaming at me,' Dunning testified. 'He said, 'you'll never make it in this business, this is how this industry works.'
She said Weinstein claimed the lewd offer was the kind of thing that happened all the time in the film business and that he mentioned the names of several big stars in hopes of convincing her to do it. Dunning, now 40, said Weinstein went on to namedrop actresses Salma Hayek and Charlize Theron, implying they had done similar things to achieve success something both women have strongly denied. Hayek has said she had to fight off Weinstein's constant harassment and bullying. Theron was upset when some accusers said he implied they had slept together. Dunning said she didn't know what Weinstein would do after she laughed off the offer, so she ran for the door and down the hall to the elevator. 'He was a big guy. He was towering over me,' she testified. 'I was really scared.'
Weinstein's lawyers questioned why Dunning waited until last summer to tell prosecutors that he had fondled her after she had gone public with the jobs-for-sex allegation, which was first published in a New York Times article in October 2017.
'His penis looked like it had been cut and sewn back on': Lauren Marie Young told the jury Weinstein groped and masturbated in front of her in a hotel bathroom and said he had a 'disgusting looking penis'
Lauren Marie Young, the final accuser at Harvey Weinstein's trial, told jurors he groped her in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom just days before the Oscars in February 2013. Young said she first met Weinstein a year earlier in February 2012 when she was invited by a friend to an Oscars party for the producer. She testified that she met Mexican model Claudia Salinas there and told her about a script she was working on based on her life. Salinas gave her her e-mail address and then a year later asked her to bring her script for a meeting with Weinstein at the hotel where the alleged groping occurred. 'I was excited. I got ready. I put on my best dress,' the 30-year-old testified about first connecting with Weinstein at the hotel. 'I was excited to network and pitch my ideas.'
At some point Weinstein said 'let's finish this conversation upstairs' and she went with him and Salinas, according to her testimony. Once in the hotel room, Young claimed Salinas closed the bathroom door behind them and that she did nothing to stop her alleged assault. Young alleged that Weinstein stripped naked, groped her breast and then masturbated in front of her. Young said Salinas 'was standing right there' when Weinstein was finished and she managed to get out. Young told the jury that shot Salinas 'an evil look and I left as quick as I could without saying anything'.
Young described in explicit detail how Weinstein had a 'disgusting'-looking penis that appeared to be 'cut and sewn back on' and that he appeared to have no testicles. 'His body was hairy, it had moles on his rolls, a disgusting looking penis,' she told jurors. 'It had looked like it had been cut and sewn back on, not a normal-looking scar from circumcision. Something didn't look normal and I remember noticing that and I didn't notice balls in the sack. I just saw a penis.'
In a dramatic moment, the court was shown the lace dress Young claimed she wore the night of that alleged assault. The dress could potentially be sent for DNA testing for evidence in a separate case against Weinstein in Los Angeles where the incident took place. Salinas was later called as a defense witness and denied ever locking Young in the bathroom with Weinstein. 'That never happened,' Salinas told jurors.
'Did you ever close that door while Lauren Young was in the bathroom with Mr. Weinstein?' Weinstein's lawyer Damon Charonis asked.
Salinas said: 'If I'd done that I'd remember it. I'd never close the door on anybody ever'.
Salinas, who is now 38 and working as a social media influencer, disputed other parts of Young's account, saying that while they did meet up at the hotel bar the night of the alleged assault, it wasn't because Weinstein wanted to see her. She also said she didn't recognize the hotel suite and didn't remember following along as Weinstein sought to continue the conversation in his room while he got ready for an awards presentation, as Young had alleged. Asked on cross-examination if she told investigators last year that it was possible Weinstein took Young to the room, Salinas replied: 'What's true is that I wasn't there in a bathroom scenario. It could have happened but it didn't mean I was there.'
From the most powerful man in Hollywood to convict: Weinstein's downfall and his deteriorating health
Harvey Weinstein was once considered the most powerful man in Hollywood who made hits like Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love with his film companies Miramax and The Weinstein Co. He dominated Hollywood in the 1990s and won 81 Oscars as he became part of the world elite and grew especially close to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Now, The Weinstein Co. is bankrupt, his wife Georgina Chapman has divorced him and his empire is in ruins with his accusers demanding tens of millions in separate civil claims. Weinstein has said that if he was cleared he would make a comeback but he still faces separate rape charges in Los Angeles. Many who have been following the New York trial were struck by the decline in Weinstein's appearance. Images of Weinstein's feeble entrances into court rocketed around social media: a disheveled man slouched over a walker and trailed by his female attorney. At the height of his powers, Weinstein weighed 300lbs and his physical stature mirrored his standing in the movie business. During the trial, Weinstein's health deteriorated with him losing an estimated 50lbs. After back surgery, he had to use a walker with tennis balls on two legs before later switching to one with wheels to help him in and out of court. Prosecutors claimed the walker was a 'prop' that was designed to elicit sympathy from the jury and make it look like he was a 'harmless old man'. In court, Weinstein mostly stared ahead and chewed gum, though the day after hosting a Super Bowl party he repeatedly fell asleep in court. During Jessica Mann's testimony about his body, Weinstein put his head in his hands. Weinstein did muster the gall to wave at Rosie Perez when she gave her evidence. Weinstein would often smile as he left court each day. When asked about the jury being shown naked pictures of him, Weinstein joked that they were looking at Playboy magazine.
