In her testimony on Tuesday, the woman who claims Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2013 said she felt guilty and disgusted for years after letting him into her hotel room.
The lady, a model and actress from Rome who was attending a film festival in Los Angeles at the time, said that she started binge drinking the next day.
She said, “I was ruining myself.” “I had a strong sense of guilt. mostly because I let the door open.”
In a courtroom in Los Angeles where the 70-year-old movie mogul is on trial for several charges of rape and sexual assault, the lady was the first of eight Weinstein victims scheduled to give testimony. Weinstein has entered a not guilty plea and is now serving a 23-year term for a conviction in New York.
Most of the victims said that Weinstein’s business encounters at hotels served as the catalyst for their attacks. The lady who gave testimony on Tuesday said, however, that she was shocked to see him knocking on her door late one night in February 2013, especially as she had only just met him earlier that day at the Los Angeles Italia film festival.
She claimed to be staying at the hotel under an assumed name and to not even know how Weinstein acquired her room number. She also said that she originally opened her door to Weinstein without thinking anything of it. When Weinstein started acting sexually aggressively, she said, that swiftly changed.
The lady, whose native tongue is Russian, said that while her English has since much improved, she still believes that she may have spoken incorrectly at the time.
She said, “I was feeling awful that I said or did anything that gave him the impression something may happen between us.”
She said that Weinstein had her have oral sex in her hotel room.
She said, “I was sort of frantic through tears.” I repeatedly said, “No, no, no.”
She said that despite Weinstein being at least 100 pounds heavier than her, she really scared him. She said that she had thought of punching, biting, or fleeing. Paul Thompson, a deputy district attorney, questioned why she didn’t.
I don’t know, she said in response. I really regret doing this.
Although she continued to refuse vocally, she said that by the time Weinstein dragged her into the toilet to rape her, she had ceased physically fighting.
She said, “I would simply freeze, like my body wouldn’t respond.
After the event, she said she found it difficult to face her kids and felt the need to confess to her Russian Orthodox priest. The priest was asked to testify by the prosecution but rejected, claiming his position of religious authority. The woman’s daughter, who is now 21 years old, will testify later.
During her evidence, the lady shed a few tears here and there but mostly maintained her composure, periodically glancing down to collect herself.
A day before, the court adjourned a few minutes early because she was crying so hard when recounting the incident.
When she came back to the podium Tuesday, she apologized for her breakdown the day before. I’m sorry, but I have no control over it.
Later on Tuesday or Wednesday, the lady was scheduled to be cross-examined by the defense.
In his opening remarks, Weinstein’s attorney Mark Werksman said that many of the allegations against his client were really reframed instances of consensual sex by his victims after he became a symbol of the #MeToo movement in 2017.
Werksman, however, refuted the existence of the incidents that took place in the woman’s hotel room in the instance of her Tuesday testimony.
The woman’s identity will not be made public in court. By the name “Jane Doe 1,” she is being referred to.
The AP normally does not identify anyone who claim to have experienced sexual abuse unless they come forward in a public forum.