NEW YORK _ The second of six alleged sexual assault survivors is expected to testify at Harvey Weinstein's New York trial Monday.
Mimi Haleyi, a former production assistant at the Weinstein Co. who worked on shows such as "Project Runway," is expected to tell jurors about an attack she says Weinstein carried out inside his Manhattan apartment in 2006.
Weinstein is charged with first-degree rape, two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of first-degree sexual assault and one count of third-degree rape. The charges stem from Haleyi's allegations and another woman's accusation that the mogul raped her in a New York City hotel in 2013.
Haleyi first came forward in 2017 at a news conference alongside attorney Gloria Allred, who represents several accusers against Weinstein and has sat in the front row of the courtroom since proceedings began last week.
Haleyi said she first met Weinstein at the 2004 premiere of the film "The Aviator." Two years later, while she was working on "Project Runway," she said Weinstein invited her up to his New York apartment for what she believed was a business meeting. Haleyi alleges the Miramax co-founder instead made unwanted advances and forcibly performed oral sex on her.
"He then orally forced himself on me while I was on my period. ... I was in disbelief and disgusted," she said in October 2017. "I would not have wanted anyone to do that to me even if that person had been a romantic partner."
Weinstein has denied all wrongdoing, and his defense team has spent much of the past few days trying to reframe each encounter as consensual. Attorneys Donna Rotunno and Damon Cheronis have repeatedly referenced emails and other communications between Weinstein and his accusers that took place long after the dates of the alleged assaults, questioning why the women would have such positive interactions with him if he was a violent predator.
After the date of the alleged 2006 assault, Cheronis said, Haleyi flew to London with Weinstein and later reached out to pitch him a television show. In 2008, Cheronis claimed Haleyi even sent him a message that seemed almost romantic.
"That's not predator and prey," Cheronis said. "The state is going to try and pull a magic trick and say it was because she was fearful ... that's not true."
Haleyi's expected testimony follows that of Annabella Sciorra, the Brooklyn actress of "Sopranos" fame who has claimed Weinstein assaulted her in her Gramercy Park home in the early 1990s.
For more than two hours, Sciorra told jurors how she came to know Weinstein as she broke into the acting world in the early 1990s. She alleged Weinstein forced his way into her apartment after he offered her a ride home from an industry dinner event in Manhattan in either late 1993 or 1994 and attacked her.
"I was trying to get him off of me. I was punching him. I was kicking him. I was just trying to get him away from me and he took my hands and he put them over my head," Sciorra, 59, testified last week, breaking into tears on the stand. "He got on top of me and he raped me."
Sciorra also said Weinstein stalked her while she was filming a movie in London in late 1994, making so many unwanted advances that she secretly changed hotels to avoid him. Actress Rosie Perez also testified last week that Sciorra told her about the assault in 1994, undercutting defense scrutiny over why Sciorra waited so long to come forward.
