Harvey Weinstein New York Trial: After Nearly Four Weeks of Evidence and 44 Witnesses, Here Are the Top Charges Before Defense Testimony | Ent & Arts News


After nearly four weeks of evidence from 44 witnesses, Los Angeles prosecutors dropped their case in the trial of Harvey Weinstein, who is accused of raping two women and sexually assaulting two others.

Currently two years into a 23-year sentence on previous rape convictions and sexual assault charges in New York, Weinstein he was held in prison during the last trial.

The LA process was widely seen as symbolic, but took on greater significance in light of being the producer granted permission to appeal his New York convictions.

The 70-year-old is charged with misdemeanors against four of the witnesses who testified. Three of the women – a model, a model/actress and a masseuse – testified anonymously. Director Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, has waived her right to anonymity.

Four other women who are not involved in the allegations also told the court that Weinstein sexually assaulted them.

Initially facing 11 charges, Weinstein is now facing seven – and has pleaded not guilty to all, with his lawyers saying many of the matches were consensual – after four were dropped when it emerged that an accuser known as Jane Doe #5 would not appear to testify.

The trial pauses for a little over a week around America’s Thanksgiving holiday before returning to hear defense witnesses in late November. Here are the main allegations heard during the prosecution.

“I was a little hysterical through the tears”

FILE - Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles, March 2, 2014. Opening statements will begin on Monday in disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein's rape and sexual assault trial in Los Angeles.  Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York.  (Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, Files)
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Photo: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP

The first of Weinstein’s accusers, a model and actress who was in Los Angeles for a film festival when she was allegedly raped by the producer in 2013, told the court that he had knocked on her hotel room door and she had let in.

She said Weinstein forced oral sex on her hotel bed. “I was kind of hysterical through the tears,” she said. “I kept saying ‘no, no, no’.”

She said she physically feared Weinstein, who outweighed her by 100 pounds or more, and thought about running, hitting or biting him.

She said that when Weinstein took her to the bathroom to allegedly rape her, she had stopped physically resisting, although she continued to object verbally. “I would just freeze, like my body isn’t listening.”

The woman testifies for the second time

Only one woman who testified in the New York trial testified in Los Angeles. The model, who aspired to be a screenwriter, had arranged to meet Weinstein about a script she was working on in 2013, the court heard.

She described Weinstein as a “freak,” saying he led her into a bathroom, quickly shed his dress and briefly stepped into the shower, then stepped out and stopped her from leaving.

“I was disgusted,” she said. “I’ve never seen a guy as big as that naked.”

She said she backed up against a sink and turned away from it. Then he unzipped her dress and fondled her with one hand while she masturbated with the other, she felt his lust.

The masseuse tells the court she was “terrified” during the incident in the hotel room

The masseur accusing Weinstein claims he sexually assaulted her in 2010, when she was 28, after he hired her to come to his hotel room for treatment.

When she was in the bathroom washing her hands after her massage, Weinstein walked in, locked the door and started masturbating in front of her, she told the court.

She began to cry as she said, “I was terrified.” Weinstein blocked the door and pushed her against a wall and groped her breasts before finishing, she heard the court.

“I was in shock. I felt frozen, I felt paralyzed,” she said.

The director cries as she talks about an alleged rape

Jennifer Siebel Newsom.  photo: AP
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Jennifer Siebel Newsom. photo: AP

In emotional testimony, Ms Siebel Newsom, 48, told the court she was 31 when she was allegedly attacked by Weinstein during what she thought was a business meeting to try to build her career in 2005.

Spending two and a half hours on the witness stand, she was in tears as she told the court that she unexpectedly found herself alone with the Hollywood mogul in a hotel suite.

Asked to describe her feelings after Weinstein allegedly emerged from the bathroom in a robe and started groping her as she masturbated, she said: “Horror! Horror! I’m shaking. I’m like a rock, I’m freezing. This is my worst nightmare.” “.

Read more: Harvey Weinstein back in court: everything you need to know

Ms Sibel Newsom said she told Weinstein that “that was not why I came here” as she physically tried to back away.

The trial resumed with the defense on November 28.

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