NEW YORK (AP) — Hovering within the doorway of her roommate’s bed room one night in July 2006, TV manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley mentioned Harvey Weinstein — her boss — had forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her, her then-roommate testified Thursday on the ex-movie mogul’s retrial.
“I said, ‘Miriam, that sounds like rape. I think you should call a lawyer,’” however a shaken Haley appeared disinclined to take action, recalled the ex-roommate, Elizabeth Entin.
If secondhand, it was the primary testimony jurors have gotten to date about any of the alleged sexual assaults on the coronary heart of the retrial, which opened Wednesday. Haley and two different accusers are anticipated to testify later within the weekslong continuing.
Weinstein, 73, maintains that he has by no means sexually assaulted or raped anybody. His attorneys argue that his accusers consented to sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer in hopes of getting forward within the leisure enterprise.
Weinstein was remodeled in 2017 from a Hollywood tycoon into the #MeToo motion’s archvillain, after a sequence of sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him turned public.
He was convicted in 2020 of raping Jessica Mann, who was as soon as an aspiring actor, and sexually assaulting Haley, who labored on the Weinstein-produced “Project Runway.” However New York’s highest courtroom overturned his conviction final yr, discovering that the trial decide had allowed prejudicial testimony.
The reversal led to the retrial, which incorporates an extra allegation of forcible oral intercourse on a distinct girl, former mannequin Kaja Sokola. Weinstein has pleaded not responsible to all the fees.
Entin was among the many witnesses who’re returning to the stand 5 years after testifying within the landmark #MeToo case. However prosecutors, some protection attorneys and the decide are completely different — and so are the contours of the testimony and proof being elicited.
For example, this time Entin did not give any particulars of what she mentioned Haley instructed her in regards to the alleged sexual assault.
And Entin wasn’t requested a few recollection that made for a memorable and uncommon mild second on the first trial — a time when she mentioned Weinstein confirmed up uninvited and was chased across the girls’s residence by Entin’s pet Chihuahua.
Farber had indicated he did not suppose that having Entin describe the purported episode was honest recreation for the trial.
In one other measure of the looping trajectory of the case, Entin discovered herself testifying about what she has mentioned and written in regards to the first trial itself. The style startup founder and advisor has mirrored on the case in a ebook, on podcasts and a few interviews.
Weinstein legal professional Jennifer Bonjean confronted her with situations during which Entin referred to her participation within the first trial as her “15 minutes of fame” and in contrast gearing up for testifying to making ready for battle.
Entin responded tensely that being cross-examined was a type of “very civilized battle.”
The voluble Entin mentioned that her writing type was generally “mildly hyperbolic,” however that she’d been describing how she girded herself for a frightening expertise.
The Related Press doesn’t determine individuals who allege they’ve been sexually assaulted except they comply with be named. Haley, Mann and Sokola have achieved so.
