NEW YORK _ A forensic psychiatrist who testified against Bill Cosby will be a key witness against Harvey Weinstein when he stands trial for rape and sex assault later this year, the New York Daily News has learned.
Barbara Ziv will be used to explain why victims often "delay in disclosing a sexual assault" and "factors that determine whether and how a victim will continue to communicate and/or interact with her attacker after an assault," among other issues, according to a letter from prosecutors recently unsealed.
The Temple University School of Law professor is necessary as a witness in the high-profile case against the film producer "to dispel several myths about sexual assault that continue to be prevalent even in today's society ... ," Assistant District Attorney Kevin Wilson wrote in the Jan. 18 submission in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Ziv has impressive credentials and "has evaluated thousands of victims of sexual abuse" and sits on the Pennsylvania Sex Offender Assessment Board, Wilson wrote.
Both Weinstein accusers reported the alleged offenses years after they took place.
Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant, says Weinstein performed oral sex on her against her will in 2006. An unidentified woman has accused Weinstein of raping her at a Doubletree Hotel on Lexington Avenue in 2013.
Neither came forward to authorities until late 2017 as the #MeToo movement was gaining prominence.
Lawyers for Weinstein have produced documentary evidence that both women stayed in contact with the former Hollywood bigwig and had communications with him after their alleged assaults.
Wilson said the forensic psychiatrist is needed to explain how victims tend to behave after they're abused.
"Jurors may evaluate the credibility of the (accusers) based on the assumptions that victims of sexual assault will promptly report the abuse, will shun the abuser, and will exhibit obvious signs of psychological harm," Willson argued.
"Scientific studies demonstrate otherwise, and this is precisely what Dr. Ziv will explain to the jury."
Weinstein's lawyer Ronald Sullivan objected to Ziv being called to testify, but Justice James Burke overruled him _ a decision announced at a pretrial conference Friday, though the identity of the DA's expert was not disclosed in court.
Weinstein denies all allegations and says all the sexual interactions were consensual.
His two accusers are among dozens of women to make allegations against Weinstein _ but because of jurisdictional issues, they are the only two able to bring criminal charges against the Miramax founder.
Prosecutors previously dismissed a count relating to former aspiring actress Lucia Evans, who also reported being abused by Weinstein after the start of #MeToo.
She told authorities she was forced to perform oral sex on him inside his Tribeca office in 2004, but wrote a contradictory account of the events in an email she drafted to her husband in 2015.
She also allegedly told a pal that she exchanged a sexual favor with Weinstein for what she thought would be an acting gig.
Weinstein faces a minimum of 10 years behind bars on the top count of predatory sexual assault.
