NEW YORK _ A once-aspiring actress who alleges she was raped at least twice by Harvey Weinstein, despite defense claims that they were in a lengthy "loving relationship," took the witness stand Friday, beginning another tense round of testimony at the former mogul's criminal trial.
The woman, whom the Los Angeles Times is not naming because she has not self-identified as a sexual assault accuser, is the final witness whose allegation of rape led to a criminal charge in the Manhattan, N.Y., case.
For nearly three hours Friday, the woman detailed an allegedly abusive relationship with the mogul. She said some encounters were consensual but disturbing while others, including the attack she alleged took place in a New York City hotel in 2013, saw her try and escape or fight back against Weinstein before he forced her onto a bed.
In her opening statement last week, Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast said the woman felt "trapped" and dependent on Weinstein for acting opportunities, so she maintained contact with him for years and engaged in sporadic sexual encounters.
Damon Cheronis, a defense attorney for Weinstein, has claimed the two were instead in a "loving relationship." The mogul's counsel is expected to provide hundreds of emails between the two and to call on a friend of the woman who they say will paint their relationship in a different light, later in the trial.
The woman's testimony marked a critical moment in the case. Of the three women whose accusations led to charges in New York, hers is the only story that has not been shared publicly before.
Describing herself as a "little nervous" after she sat down and picked up a microphone, the woman took a lengthy pause before answering a simple question from Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Osborn about where she lived. Her voice broke when she finally spoke.
While the criminal charges related to the woman's account have to do with an alleged assault in New York, the woman said her relationship with Weinstein, and the abuses she claimed she suffered at his hands, started in Los Angeles.
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 counts stem from allegations made by actress Annabella Sciorra, former Weinstein Co. production assistant Mimi Haley and the woman who testified Friday.
Weinstein has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that each alleged assault was a consensual affair.
In court Friday, the woman said she grew up in a small town in eastern Washington state where "everyone knows everyone." Describing a cultlike religious upbringing, the woman said she struggled to make money as part of an acting troupe in the Northwest before moving to Los Angeles at the age of 25.
After bouncing around waitressing jobs and addresses in North Hollywood and Laguna Beach, at one point even living in her car due to money problems, the woman said she approached Weinstein at a party in the Hollywood Hills that she'd been invited to by a fellow actress.
"He goes, 'Oh, do you know who I am?' and I said, 'No,'" she said. "And he goes, 'Oh, I'm Harvey Weinstein,' and I go, 'OK?'"
She said her friend tried to squeeze her arm and promise the mogul she was just kidding.
At the end of the party, Weinstein said he was "interested in" the woman as an actress, and they exchanged contact information.
The woman "was stunned, so happy and excited ... a titan of the industry, was noticing her and now interested in her, and her talent," said Hast, adding that Weinstein was only giving her "an audition ... as a victim."
They next met at a hotel bar where they discussed acting and her personal life before going to Weinstein's room. At that point, Weinstein offered to give the woman a massage. She declined. He insisted. Eventually, she gave him a massage but felt "bullied and manipulated," Hast said.
Still, the woman continued to interact with Weinstein, who arranged meetings around Southern California and invited her to other industry events. The relationship even seemed to take on the mentor-mentee arrangement the woman said she desired, with Weinstein at one point escorting her around the shelves of Book Soup in West Hollywood to help her find books on the history of the business she wanted to break into. He even started to make mention of a movie script where the woman and her roommate would be "perfect" for the two lead roles.
The woman said Friday that she next met Weinstein at the Montage Beverly Hills along with the actress friend who introduced them. Over drinks, she said Weinstein promised that the two women would be "perfect" for an upcoming "vampire movie" he was producing. Afterward, she said Weinstein invited the women up to his hotel room, promising nothing untoward would happen as he was a "harmless old man."
Once upstairs, however, the woman said Weinstein backed her up against the door to the bedroom and "grabbed my arms ... he's pulling me around and, as he's pulling me around, he closes the door."
Inside the bedroom, the woman said Weinstein tried repeatedly to kiss and grab her, while she continually attempted to twist out of his grasp.
"The more I fought, the angrier he got," the woman said.
Eventually, Weinstein told the woman he was "not letting (the woman) leave until I do something for you." The woman alleged Weinstein then forced oral sex on her.
The alleged victim felt humiliated, even "suicidal," according to Hast. But her roommate urged her to continue interacting with Weinstein because the connection to him could be beneficial to their careers.
"She will tell you about subsequent communications, phone calls ... some of them will appear loving, like a child," Hast said. "She's not going to ask for your pity. What she needs is your attention."
Despite her description of the incident at the Montage, the woman said she proceeded to participate in a number of consensual sex acts with him.
The woman said Weinstein reminded her of her father, adding that she was desperate for the mogul's approval in the acting field, while describing a consensual but harrowing relationship where the Miramax co-founder treated her well in public but allegedly used her as a sexual plaything in private.
"It was like Jekyll and Hyde. He could be the most charming, informative, person; he could lift you up to anyone he introduced you to and then behind closed doors it was ... dependent on if I gave him what he wanted," she said, adding she often felt "discarded" after sexual encounters with Weinstein.
Weinstein often "wanted to film" her performing oral sex and repeatedly told her of fantasies involving other actresses, she testified Friday. He also generally cursed at her and ordered her around during sexual encounters, she said. She also claimed Weinstein urinated on her once. She said that while the encounters were consensual, she was not sexually attracted to Weinstein
In March 2013, the woman traveled to New York City for "the first time in her life" along with an industry friend who was headed there on business, Hast said. She contacted Weinstein and tried to set up a breakfast meeting between the mogul and her friend.
They were supposed to meet for a late breakfast at a Doubletree Hotel, but on the morning of the meeting, the woman received a call in her hotel room that Weinstein was downstairs.
The woman was panicked and went downstairs to ask Weinstein why he was there. She found him checking into a hotel room and confronted him "because she knew what was coming next."
Hast said Weinstein grabbed the woman by the arm and pulled her aside, "warning her not to embarrass him." She alleged Weinstein grabbed her, undressed her and ordered her onto the bed.
She did not fight back, according to Hast, who said the incident at the Doubletree is the crime charged in the current case.
Despite this, the woman still went to the breakfast meeting, where Weinstein invited her to a movie premiere. She attended, but afterward "slept on her friend's floor rather than risking going back to her hotel to find the defendant there."
In 2013, the woman began seeking work as a hairdresser and started dating someone whom she fell in love with, Hast said last week. She agreed to meet Weinstein and give him a haircut at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where he had gotten her a job in a salon.
The woman said Friday she was terrified that Weinstein would become livid when he learned her boyfriend was an actor. The mogul had allegedly set rules for their relationship, among them that she was only allowed to date men outside of Hollywood.
She feared Weinstein might ruin her boyfriend's career or have him physically harmed. In the past, she said, he had claimed to have hired hands who could hurt people on his behalf.
"I had a fight with my dad once, and (Weinstein) saw that I was upset, and he said to me that he has guys with bats," she said. "And he'll send two men over there with bats, and then he told me a story of an actress' stalkers that he had already done that to."
As she was about to recount what happened when she told Weinstein about the boyfriend, the woman completely broke down, sobbing so loudly that she could be heard even after she left the courtroom.
The court broke for lunch at that point.
Last week, Hast said that after Weinstein learned about the woman's boyfriend, he "grabbed (her) by the arms, ripped her from the chair and dragged her screaming that she 'owed him one more time.'"
In his opening, defense attorney Cheronis pounced on the fact that the woman stayed in contact with Weinstein and attended events with him despite the alleged graphic assaults described by Hast. He highlighted several playful, loving exchanges between the two for the jury.
"Dear Harv, I got a new number. Just wanted you to have it. Hope you are well and call me anytime, always good to hear your voice," the woman wrote in 2013, according to Cheronis.
"You can't say I'm afraid of this man, I'm trying to get away from him, while at the same time, after he sexually assaulted you, asking if you are going to be in L.A.," Cheronis said.
Cheronis also showed messages in 2014 where the woman offered to have Weinstein meet her mother.
"This is not about a young individual who is tricked by a master manipulator," Cheronis said. "You are going to see, get ready for it, an actual loving relationship in hundreds of emails between (the alleged victim) and Harvey Weinstein."
