NEW YORK _ Harvey Weinstein wouldn't take no for an answer when a New York production assistant rejected his sexual advances and told him she was menstruating, she said Tuesday.
The disgraced movie mogul pinned new accuser Mimi Haleyi down in a surprise attack at his Manhattan residence, forcibly removed her tampon and performed oral sex on her without consent, she said.
"He held me down on the bed. I tried to get away, tried to get him off me, and kept asking him to stop but it was impossible. He was extremely persistent and physically overpowering. He then orally forced himself on me, while I was on my period," Haleyi said, her voice cracking with emotion as she recounted the alleged 2006 sexual assault.
"He even pulled my tampon out. I was mortified. I was in disbelief and disgusted. I would not want anyone to do that to me, even if the person was a romantic partner," she said.
"I remember Harvey afterwards rolling over on to his back and saying, 'Don't you feel we're so much closer to each other now?'" she recalled.
Haleyi spoke out Tuesday at a news conference with lawyer Gloria Allred, saying she was in her 20s when the alleged assault took place.
"Any allegations of nonconsensual sex are unequivocally denied by Mr. Weinstein," his spokeswoman said Tuesday, reiterating a prior statement to the media.
Haleyi had not reported her allegations to NYPD as of Tuesday afternoon, Allred told the New York Daily News.
"There's no decision at this time," Allred said when pressed on whether Haleyi would be willing to meet with the local investigators already probing Weinstein's alleged history of harassment and sexual assault.
Asked if NYPD officials have reached out already to request a sit-down, Allred declined to answer.
"Her allegation appears to be beyond the statute of limitations," Allred said of Haleyi.
"If she spoke to (investigators), it would be to answer any questions they might have that might be relevant to their investigation. They'll decide for what purpose," she said.
Haleyi said she first met Weinstein in 2004 at the London premiere of "The Aviator."
She said she ran into the once-mighty mogul again in Cannes, France, in 2006 and agreed to meet him at his hotel to discuss possible job opportunities back in New York.
Haleyi said she was escorted to his room by an assistant who promptly left them alone together. After a few minutes of normal conversation, she said Weinstein asked for a massage. She declined and left, feeling "humiliated and stupid" for having been excited about the meeting, she said.
She described feeling surprised when Weinstein later contacted her about a job on a TV show he was producing in New York.
Haleyi said she took the position and had no contact with Weinstein until after the production ended.
When Weinstein reached out at a later date, he said he received excellent feedback about her and wanted to meet again, she agreed to a meeting at the Mercer Hotel in SoHo, she said.
Weinstein "was a complete gentleman" during that follow-up meeting, she recalled.
Haleyi met Weinstein again a few days later at his office in Tribeca, and she recalled believing their relationship was now completely professional.
They discussed his projects, and he lent her a copy of the book "Tender is the Night" by F. Scott Fitzgerald, she said.
When Weinstein subsequently invited her to join him on a trip to Paris, she declined, she said.
She said Weinstein kept calling and even showed up unannounced at her apartment in the East Village, bullied his way through the door and pleaded with her to join him in Paris.
"I finally said, 'I'm not coming to Paris with you, and I hear you have a terrible reputation with women.' That's when he backed off. I made it clear I did not have any romantic interest in him," she said.
When Weinstein returned from Paris, he invited her to his residence, which had children's drawings on display, she said.
"I agreed as I wanted to maintain a good relationship with him," she recalled.
They watched a little TV, and then Weinstein pounced, she said.
"I told him no, no, no but he insisted," she said, describing the sexual assault while seated beside Allred at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel on Madison Avenue.
Allred is representing three accusers who have gone public with accusations against the co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Co. The lawyer says "numerous" other women have contacted her as well.
She described Weinstein's alleged assault on Haleyi as a "new low" and called on the fallen producer to contact her office "to discuss our plan for justice for victims."
"Vague apologies are not enough. It is time for him to take meaningful action to demonstrate in deeds, not just words, that he is taking responsibility for what he has done and that he is willing to make amends to the victims," she said Tuesday.
More than 40 women including actresses Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie, Mira Sorvio, Lupita Nyong'o and Lauren Holly have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment.
Actresses Rose McGowan, Asia Argento and Lucia Evans say Weinstein forced sex acts on them without consent.
Weinstein entered an undisclosed treatment program after exposes in The New York Times and The New Yorker uncovered a pattern of sexual harassment claims and settlements going back decades.
