Critical witness reduced to tears during testimony
NEW YORK — A key accuser in the New York City rape trial of Harvey Weinstein broke down in tears on the witness stand on Monday during an exhaustive crossexamination over the nature of her relationship with the oncepowerful movie mogul.
The drama, which prompted the judge to send the jury home about an hour earlier than usual, came after the defense sought to paint the 34yearold woman as an opportunistic manipulator who took advantage of Weinstein while pursuing an acting career, even after he allegedly raped her.
The woman said she “tried to make him my pseudo father” after a rough upbringing.
“I wanted him to believe I wasn’t a threat,” the woman testified. “I was afraid of his unpredictable anger.”
Defense lawyer Donna Rotunno, a known #MeToo skeptic, sought to shoot down those explanations by zeroing in on the accuser’s admission that she also had noncoerced sexual encounters with Weinstein that she said only happened after “a long negotiation.”
“You manipulated Mr. Weinstein every single time, isn’t that correct?” Rotunno asked.
At one point, Rotunno shot back: “You made a choice to have sexual encounters with
Harvey Weinstein when you weren’t sexually attracted to him. … You liked the parties and you liked the power.”
The witness, who is to return to the stand on Tuesday, had told the jury last week on direct examination that Weinstein trapped her in a New York hotel room in March 2013, and angrily ordered her to undress as he loomed over her, and then raped her. A second attack came eight months later at a Beverly Hills hotel, she said.
Weinstein is charged in New York with the 2013 rape and also sexually assaulting Mimi Haleyi, a former “Project Runway” production assistant, in 2006. A conviction could put him behind bars for the rest of his life.
Weinstein, 67, has insisted that any sexual encounters were consensual.