A woman who says Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a hotel bathroom in 2013 testified Monday that she was lured there by one of his executive assistants, a fellow model-actress who had befriended her, summoned her for a script meeting, closed the door to the bathroom and gave her an “evil look” as she exited, freshly shattered by what she had just been through.
Jane Doe 2 first began her testimony on Friday afternoon, but only got so far: She told how she had met Claudia Salinas, one of Weinstein’s small army of assistants, at an Oscars dinner party in 2012. They remained friendly, and about a year later Salinas told her “out of the blue” to bring her script to the Montage hotel for a meeting with Weinstein.
On Monday, she picked up her story from there, describing how Salinas not only escorted her and Weinstein into a bathroom, but shot her a “look” as she was closing the door, and again after the assault took place. Salinas testified in 2020 that she had no recollection of the event, and denied involvement Monday through her lawyer.
Salinas has a few movie and television credits to her name, including as a dancer in “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” the 2004 film where the witness known as “Ashley M.” testified last month she was whisked away from the set by another Weinstein assistant (Barbara Hung, who also testified Friday) for a similar ambush-style sexual assault in a bathroom at the Ritz-Carlton.
Jane Doe 2 said she had seen Weinstein several times since 2010, but was never properly introduced. But at the 2012 Oscars dinner at Mr. C, she became fast friends with Salinas, taking photographs together and becoming friends on Instagram and Facebook with the close Weinstein confidante.
“She was really sweet and nice, she was also a model-actress, dancer and she told me she was Miss New Mexico,” the witness said. “I told her a lot about myself, that I was interested in writing, that I was working on a script for a movie.”
About a year later, she said, Salinas “[texted] me kind of out of the blue, said she would like to bring my script to a meeting with Harvey. … I thought that it was really exciting for me.” She said she was 23 at the time, and her script was still a rough draft.
“I got ready, curled my hair, did my makeup, put on a nice dress that I normally don’t wear because I’m afraid of spilling something on it, because it was a white dress,” she said.
She said Salinas met her in the restaurant at the Montage, where they had a drink before Harvey joined. She said Weinstein spent much of his time on his phone, and that neither he nor Salinas took much interest in his script, telling her she should “host something” or be on “America’s Next Top Model” instead.
Weinstein then said he had to go get ready to give Quentin Tarantino an award, but invited Jane Doe 2 to “walk and talk” – so she began to follow him, with Salinas behind them, up to his room. She kept following Weinstein as he walked briskly through his suite, figuring they were going to a “conference room” or another living area, but instead, she found herself in the bathroom – with Salinas closing the door behind.
“This was a girl that I thought was my new friend,” Jane Doe said. “So her giving me this look while she closed the door … I just couldn’t believe that she would do that to me. To another girl. Because there’s a girl code. You don’t do that.”
In an instant, Weinstein was taking off his clothes and getting into the shower.
“I was disgusted. I had never sen a big guy like that naked,” she said, her voice breaking as she began to cry. “I actually laughed nervously and thought ‘No, no, no.’”
All the while, she said, Weinstein continued making casual conversation. She backed up to the mirror against the sink and froze: “He was just talking about the business and other actresses. And saying this is what they do, this is how I know you can act.”
She said she continually said no, and even tried to leave the bathroom – “that’s when he came out of the shower in front of me.”
“He said ‘We’re just gonna talk,’” as his 300-pound frame blocked here only exit. “I said ‘No, no, no, no. … He was just going on about movie stuff, acting, rambling on … He started touching me after that.”
She said when she turned her back, he unzipped the back of her dress and pulled it down around her hips. “He was grabbing my breasts and jerking off, like squinting at me, not looking at me. Holding me there and talking to me. … I was really grossed out by his body and the look he was giving me, I was wondering how do I get out of here safe, what am I going to do? What are they gonna do to me?”
She said he continued to try to grope her – though she was using her hands at times to shield her vagina and push his hands away – for several minutes before he ejaculated on a towel and left the bathroom.
“I was in so much shock, I was wondering how I was going to leave, and if they were going to let me leave. I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.” She said she pulled up her dress and let the bathroom – only to see Salinas right outside the door.
“I shot her an evil look,” Jane Doe 2 said. “She didn’t say anything. She looked at me. She had this evil look. Like a smirk. Like she roped me in on something.”
Salinas denied the story via a statement provided to TheWrap by her lawyer: “Ms. Salinas has previously testified credibly and under oath regarding this matter in New York. This allegation by Jane Doe 2 is false; her narrative never happened. I am sure her credibility will be called into question. Additionally, Ms. Salinas was never Miss New Mexico.”
She said Weinstein was putting clothes on as she walked out of the suite. “I sat in my car and cried and was in complete shock. I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I should call the cops. I wondered what do I do, this guy is so powerful, I didn’t know what to do. I called my friends, got a hold of them, messaged them.”
Jane Doe 2 added that she did not notify police immediately because “I was scared at that point that he might have an in with the cops or was corrupt like that. I knew he had a lot of power I was really scared.”
As with previous witnesses, Jane Doe 2 was asked by prosecutors to describe the unique features of Weinstein’s body, including genitals that have apparently been altered from surgery due to some kind of previous infection.
“He had rolls and he was really hairy and there was moles on his body,” she said. “His penis was disgusting. It looked like it had been chopped off and sewn back on, like something wasn’t right about it.”
She was asked about his testicles, which the defense says had been removed from the scrotum and relocated to the inner thighs.
“I didn’t really see a full sack,” she said. “I literally just saw a penis.”
At one point prosecutors showed a crude drawing of Weinstein’s anatomy that Jane Doe 2 had created for police. It showed Weinstein naked, masturbating, holding up a hand and grabbing her breast.
Jane Doe 2 said she never saw Weinstein again after the assault – though the following day she saw Salinas and Barbara Schneeweiss, another of his executive assistants, at a Weinstein Co. office where she had been summoned for another meeting.
“I told [Salinas] ‘Don’t fuckin talk to me.’ She didn’t say anything. She stayed there and just was right by me until I went into the office room. She talked to Barbara for a little bit. She talked about job offers that they wanted to give me, I told her I wasn’t really interested in doing reality TV.”
Asked why she would attend in the first place, she said: “I was scared to NOT go to the meeting that they set up, of fear of retaliation, that they would call my agency and say ‘Drop her.’ I didn’t know if not going would be worse, so I went because I was scared. I thought he was going to be there and I could have maybe told him off. I didn’t know if it was best to not go.”
She said Schneeweiss told her to send a headshot, but she never did: “I didn’t want to work with her because of what they did to me.”
On cross-examination, defense attorney Alan Jackson took particular issue with Jane Doe 2’s timeline. Initially she told police that her assault was just a matter of days or weeks after meeting Salinas; she testified that a year had gone by. Jane Doe 2 said she likely conflated the memory because the dates, being almost exactly a year apart, were very similar.
Testimony was expected to resume Monday after a lunch break.