Weinstein accuser’s friend: ‘It sounded like rape’

NEW YORK – The Harvey Weinstein sex crimes trial resumed Tuesday when a witness corroborated testimony by former production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi, who sobbed as she told jurors Monday that she tried to fight off the movie mogul while he sexually assaulted her at his New York City apartment in 2006.

Elizabeth Entin, Haleyi’s roommate at the time, said Haleyi told her she had gone to Weinstein’s apartment assuming it was for a work meeting.

After hearing her roommate’s account, Entin said, she told her, “Miriam, that sounds like rape . ... Why don’t you call a lawyer?”

“She still just seemed very distraught and was shaking and didn’t really want to pursue it or talk about it,” she said.

She said that before the encounter, she and Haleyi “thought it was just this pathetic older man trying to hit on Miriam, and we just had a laugh about it.”

Afterward, she testified, Haleyi was more withdrawn.

On cross examination, she said she lost touch with Haleyi in late 2006 or early 2007. Entin and Weinstein’s lead defense attorney, Donna Rotunno, sparred as Rotunno referred to the “alleged rape” in her questions and Entin insisted that it was rape and that it did happen.

When Rotunno asked her why she didn’t tell Haleyi to stop seeing Weinstein after he showed up at their apartment, Entin said, “I didn’t think that was my place, and I thought an older man could certainly contain himself.”

Besides Entin, a second witness took the stand Tuesday to testify about records related to the investigation of Weinstein. Prosecutors called a photo editor for the Getty Images photo agency to introduce pictures of Weinstein alongside powerful people, including former President Bill Clinton.

Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said the pictures show Weinstein had pull with political and world leaders. Rotunno objected, saying, “It’s insulting to insinuate that women can’t make decisions just because someone is powerful.”

Judge James Burke allowed the picture of Weinstein with Clinton to remain in evidence, saying that was sufficient to show what Illuzzi wanted to illustrate.

After the Getty editor left the stand and the lawyers huddled at the bench with the judge, Burke announced that the trial was adjourned for the day.

This week, two women – called “Molineux” witnesses – may testify about alleged, but uncharged, “prior bad acts” by Weinstein, followed by one of the two complaining witnesses, Jessica Mann, who said he raped her at a hotel in 2013.

A third and final Molineux witness is likely to testify Monday, completing the bulk of a prosecution case that began last Wednesday. The trial opened Jan. 6 and could last until early March.

Weinstein, 67, is charged with five sex crimes.