Harvey left her ruined - she left him bloody, suit claims
Awoman has stepped forward to accuse Harvey Weinstein of “attempted rape” inside a Beverly Hills hotel room — and claims she bloodied his genitals as she desperately fought him off, an explosive new lawsuit reveals.
In a complaint filed on Friday in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, Hayley Gripp says the sexfiend producer forced himself on her in a suite at the Beverly Hilton in November 2012 when she was just 19 years old.
For years, the aspiring actress kept the violent encounter to herself — and said she didn’t even realize that the “big producer” who assaulted her was Weinstein until she saw him on the news in 2017.
Gripp was subsequently diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, her lawyer, Eric Lerner, told The Post. The delay in the discovery of Weinstein’s identity and recognition of the injuries resulting from the attack prevented her from seeking justice until now, he said.
“This lawsuit is about Ms. Gripp reclaiming her power, becoming a survivor, not a victim, and getting restitution for the sexual crimes perpetrated against her. She has real damages from this that are lasting,” Lerner said.
“Harvey Weinstein along with those who helped him perpetrate these crimes of sexual assault and attempted rape against Ms. Gripp must be held responsible for ruining her life.”
Gripp declined to be interviewed, but court papers describe a harrowing attack and dramatic escape.
The then-Los Angeles resident was in the hotel’s lobby drinking coffee, eating a granola bar and thumbing through the Amanda Quick novel “Seduction” when an unnamed Weinstein associate approached and engaged her in friendly conversation.
Gripp opened up about her life, her Tourette’s syndrome, how she had been doing hair modeling for print media and was waiting for a casting nearby, according to court papers.
The woman invited her to enjoy a fuller breakfast with industry guests who were in town for the Britannia Awards, a film and TV awards show hosted by BAFTA Los Angeles. You need to “fuel up” before the “big casting,” she told her.
After breakfast, the woman suggested Gripp meet her friend — a “big producer” — in one of the hotel rooms, the filing says. She suggested the Hollywood power player could help her career and was worth missing the casting. Gripp reluctantly agreed.
Upon entering the suite, according to the suit, the producer introduced himself as “Dom.” The associate handed her a glass of wine. When Gripp said she was not 21, the associate told her, “It’s rude not to accept a drink from someone who feeds you and shows you hospitality.”
Gripp downed half a glass before experiencing “a brief blackout,” the suit says. She came to, to the nightmarish sight of Weinstein rubbing up against her as she was pinned to a coffee table, according to the pa
pers.
“You are so wet and tight. You are a virgin, aren’t you?” Weinstein allegedly said, adding that she should “pretend I’m someone like Zac Efron.”
“Ms. Gripp did not realize Weinstein’s fingers were inside her vagina until she felt the cold metal of his watch against her skin,” the court papers allege.
“Weinstein then held Ms. Gripp down with one hand, took Ms. Gripp’s genital fluids, and rubbed it on his exposed genitalia, proceeding to masturbate with his other hand.”
“To escape his hold, Ms. Gripp began flailing her arms and, in doing so, broke her acrylic nail against the coffee table,” the court papers say. “Ms. Gripp then stabbed Weinstein on the bottom part of his scrotum with her sharp broken nail.”
“Weinstein let out a quiet scream and grabbed her hand, inadvertently causing her nail to move up and inward, deeper into his scrotum,” the suit reads.
The account offers a possible explanation for Weinstein’s infamously deformed genitals.
Last January, Jessica Mann told a Manhattan courtroom that Weinstein’s nether regions had “extreme scarring” — something she witnessed when he allegedly raped her on March 18, 2013, at the Doubletree Hotel in Midtown.
It was subsequently reported that Weinstein had been deformed by Fournier’s gangrene, a bacterial infection contracted through cuts or scratches in the genitals.
As a bleeding Weinstein went for a towel, Gripp fled the room, but was stopped outside by the same woman who brought her and had seemingly been standing guard the whole time, the suit says.
“What happened in there is your fault because of your Tourette syndrome. You are crazy,” the woman said, according to the suit.
She warned Gripp that if she told anyone about what happened, “she would end up in a mental hospital,” the suit says.
Gripp never came forward during Weinstein’s trial and did not partake in a $17 million settlement shared among dozens of his more than 100 accusers. She also did not report the alleged crime to police at the time.
“Ms. Gripp did not report this crime to police for the same reason that nearly 80 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported,” Christa Riggins, a second attorney for Gripp, told The Post.
“At this time, Ms. Gripp does not intend to file criminal charges because Harvey Weinstein has received what amounts to a lifetime sentence and is unable to abuse another woman.
“However, Hayley will fully cooperate with the Los Angeles Police Department or any other agency regarding an investigation or prosecution against Harvey Weinstein,” the lawyer said.
Gripp — who works as a certified advocate for children of trauma and special needs — is now demanding a jury trial and seeks unspecified damages.
“She is entitled to have a jury of her peers decide the merits of her case. Juries almost exclusively decide these types of cases,” Lerner said.
In March, before filing the suit, Gripp passed a polygraph test in New York City, according to her attorneys, who provided the results of the test to The Post.
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year sentence at the Wende Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in upstate Erie County, after being convicted in February 2020 of rape and criminal sexual acts in New York City.
“Mr. Weinstein categorically denies the allegations made against him in the complaint that has come out of the woodwork, and intends to vigorously defend against the lawsuit,” Imran H. Ansari, an attorney for the ex-producer, told The Post.