NEW YORK _ The final accuser to testify against Harvey Weinstein at his sex crimes trial told a Manhattan jury Wednesday he sexually assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom.
Lauren Young, 30, an actress and model, said a year after she brushed shoulders with the Oscar-winning film producer during an Oscar party, former Miss New Mexico Claudia Salinas reached out to her on Feb. 19, 2013, saying Weinstein was interested in a script she had written.
"I was excited. I got ready and I put on my best dress," she testified. "I was excited to network and pitch my ideas."
Young, then 22, met the pair at The Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills, where they had a drink in the lobby near the bar, she testified.
"He sat down and he was on his phone and we started discussing what ideas we had and my script and he said, 'What about "America's Next Top Model?" ' And I said 'No, I don't want to be on reality TV,' " Young testified. "I was trying to transition into acting and reality TV just wasn't what I wanted."
Young said a short while later she followed Weinstein and Salinas at their behest to the "Pulp Fiction" producer's hotel room where he had to work on a speech he was going to give for director Quentin Tarantino.
"He said, 'Let's finish this conversation and follow me upstairs. I have to get ready to present an award or accept an award for Quentin Tarantino,'" Young recalled. "So I followed."
Once upstairs, Young said she became confused as Weinstein and Salinas, flanking her on either side, continued to discuss projects while walking her through Weinstein's bedroom and into a bathroom.
"So I followed Harvey in and Claudia was behind me and as I step into the bathroom there's a mirror straight ahead," Young testified, adding that Claudia then closed the door and she realized she was alone with Weinstein.
Weinstein cornered Young, impeding her exit by opening the glass shower door so she couldn't open the door to the bathroom, she said.
"He unzipped (my dress) and started pulling it down and turned me around and then he (was) masturbating and thrusting on me ... saying, 'How am I gonna know you can act?'"
Holding back tears, Young said Weinstein scrunched up his face as he stared at her while trying to shove his hand into her underwear.
"I blocked it fast," she said.
Tarantino, who worked with Weinstein on movies including "Reservoir Dogs," "Pulp Fiction" and "The Hateful Eight," admitted he was aware of Weinstein's reputation for being a sexual predator in October 2017.
"There was more to it than just the normal rumors, the normal gossip. It wasn't secondhand. I knew he did a couple of these things," he told The New York Times.
"I wish I had taken responsibility for what I heard. If I had done the work I should have done then, I would have had to not work with him."
Prosecutors have called Young to testify in Weinstein's New York case in an attempt to establish a pattern of predatory behavior. Weinstein faces criminal charges in Los Angeles for allegedly assaulting Young, along with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint, according to court documents.
Defense attorneys sought in vain to file for yet another mistrial and block Young's testimony after it was revealed she recovered the dress she was wearing the night of the assault at The Montague just days ago.
"Two days ago, maybe three, Lauren Young contacted the DA and said that she found the dress she was wearing the night of February 19 of 2013 _ the alleged incident with Mr. Weinstein at The Montage Hotel," Cheronis said, adding that Weinstein's legal team will not have time to have the dress tested for exculpatory evidence before she's finished testifying.
"Now we are in a position where we have evidence that is tendered by the DA."
Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast said that prosecutors in California will be attempting to test the dress _ which Young claims she has not worn since the night of the incident _ for DNA.
Earlier Monday, Manhattan prosecutors called Rothschild Capulong, the former overnight manager at the DoubleTree hotel in Manhattan, to the stand.
Weinstein faces two counts of rape for allegedly raping Jessica Mann at the hotel on March 18, 2013.
Capulong testified about an "intimidating" looking Weinstein checking in at the hotel that morning with a "discontented" young woman.
"Weinstein was looming over me, so I couldn't really get a good look" at the woman he was with, Capulong said. "I tried to tilt my head to get a view but Weinstein was really imposing and looming over me."
Weinstein was booked in under the pseudonym Max Poster, Capulong said, but in the comments section of the three-page folio book from Weinstein's stay it was noted: "Celebrity Harvey Weinstein is the actual guest."
The overnight manager, who working that morning as his relief was running late, wrote, "security might want to check Mr. Weinstein at the room" in his end of shift report, which would be sent on to managers and the head of security, he testified.
"It's not really fair to say that most people checking in are happy, correct?" Rotunno asked Capulong on cross examination, who answered in the affirmative.
"You never saw him put his hands on her," she asked.
"No," he said.
On redirect, Capulong told Illuzzi that "it was just the discontent part of being a couple" that he noticed about Weinstein and the young woman he was with.
"They don't look exhausted, like normal travelers," he said.
Weinstein, 67, faces life imprisonment if convicted of the top charges in a five-count indictment charging him with rape and sexual assault involving a pair of women who already took the stand against him.
