Accuser breaks into sobs during Weinstein trial
NEW YORK — After nearly five hours on the stand in a Manhattan courtroom Monday, one of the women who has accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault folded over in tears as defense attorneys confronted her with a slew of emails that detailed a cordial relationship between the former aspiring actress and her alleged rapist.
Donna Rotunno, Weinstein’s lead attorney, spent hours questioning the woman’s interactions with the mogul despite her graphic descriptions of two violent assaults: one in a Manhattan hotel in 2013 that resulted in criminal charges in New York, and another in Beverly Hills in early 2014 where the woman says Weinstein forced himself on her after she told him she had a boyfriend.
Rotunno repeatedly said the woman was “manipulating” Weinstein, and asked pointed questions about her behavior in the immediate aftermath of the alleged assaults. In early 2014, Rotunno said, the woman sent an email to Weinstein complimenting his “smile and beautiful eyes” just days after he allegedly assaulted her at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills.
In 2013, the woman joined Weinstein for a screening of the film “August: Osage County” the day after one of the alleged rapes occurred in a Manhattan hotel, Rotunno said. Five months later, the woman referenced the film in a polite email exchange with Weinstein.
The testimony became all too much late Monday afternoon, when Rotunno made the woman read an email she sent to her boyfriend in 2014 disclosing some details about her dynamic with Weinstein. After reading about three pages, she began sobbing heavily and the court went into recess.
When she was called back to the stand, she doubled over and wept loudly again, causing Manhattan Assistant Dist. Atty. Joan IlluziOsborn and Rotunno to approach with concerned looks on their faces.
During nearly six hours of emotional testimony Friday, the woman recounted her relationship with Weinstein, one she said was by turns compassionate and brutal.
Though she accused Weinstein of raping her in Los Angeles and New York — including the alleged 2013 Manhattan attack that prompted some of the charges for which he now stands trial — she also said they had several consensual sexual encounters.
Weinstein, 67, is charged in New York 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 the accusations of Mimi Haley, a former employee of Weinstein’s production company; and from the woman who testified Friday.
Cross-examination is expected to resume Tuesday.