Los Angeles prosecutors launched their rape case against Harvey Weinstein on Monday with an opening statement that included detailed descriptions of the eight accusers who will testify in the criminal trial, as well as several graphic examples from their recollections.
“You’re going to hear from eight different women who were assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in Los Angeles,” said Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson. Four are from Los Angeles, and the other four from outside the area, he said, adding that they each came forward independently.
Only one of them, Jane Doe No. 1, gave live testimony on Monday.
Before she took the stand, prosecutors spent the morning reading off a laundry list of graphic accusations at the heart of their case. Weinstein, who has denied any wrongdoing, was in court and made no visible reaction as Thompson read off a sampling of statements from the eight women:
“He put his hand on my chest and started masturbating.”
“He put his penis in my mouth … I was crying and my tears, saliva … and he was trying to keep his penis in my mouth … .”
“Please stop. I don’t want this. What are you doing?”
Thompson also read statements from the women speaking to Weinstein’s intimidating stature, presence and power in the entertainment industry at the time of the encounters, which span 2004-2013.
“He’s big, he’s broad, he’s overweight … he’s domineering.”
“He was the king.”
The defense began its opening statement just before 2 p.m. Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman told the jury that each of the described encounters was consensual, and that the prosecution is focusing on quantity over quality.
“The evidence will reveal that the prosecution’s case is a firehose,” he said, “designed to shock and awe.”
“You’ll learn that in Hollywood, sex was a commodity,” Werksman said. “It was transactional sex. It may have been unpleasant, and embarrassing … but it was consensual. … It was the casting couch. Everyone did it. He did it. They did it. Because each wanted something from another.”
“The accusers in this case, women who willingly played the game by the rules that applied back then, they will come into this courtroom now, with their lawyers in tow, and claim they were raped and sexually assaulted,” Werksman said. “They have to lie to themselves … to make what they did consensually back then seem like it was forced upon them.”
Weinstein faces 11 charges of sexual assault from allegations spanning from 2004-2013. The trial is expected to last into December after a two-week jury selection process seated a panel last Thursday of nine men and three women. Weinstein could face up to 140 years in prison if convicted.
He is already serving 23 years in a New York prison for criminal first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, a conviction he has been granted the right to appeal. Weinstein has maintained his innocence since the New York Times first published accusations against him five years ago this month.
Prosecutors gave detailed witness descriptions in their opening statements, identifying most with shortened names and pseudonyms. Thompson said only one – “Ambra B.” – reported an assault to police, with the rest coming forward after #MeToo broke in 2017. All described their assaults to friends shortly after they happened.
Of the women slated to testify against Weinstein, only one is being publicly named – that being Jane Doe No. 4, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who self-identified as the trial was just beginning. Newsom says during her time as an actress, she was lured to Weinstein’s room under pretense of a business meeting in 2005 and was assaulted.
The prosecutor said Newsom and the other victims will be able to corroborate “unique things about his body.”
“What I’m referring to is the result of a surgery that [Weinstein] had in 1999. That surgery caused pretty noticeable scarring, and you’ll see the pictures,” Thompson said. “Because of an infection, his testicles were actually taken from his scrotum and put into his inner thighs.”
The first live witness was Jane Doe No. 1, a model and actress from Italy who came to Los Angeles in 2013 for the Italia Film Festival and Academy Awards.
She said from the stand Monday afternoon that she “barely” talked with Weinstein that night; later, as she was readying for bed, she was surprised when he showed up unannounced at her hotel room door and began noisily insisting on coming in. Once inside, after a few minutes of talking he forced her onto the bed and raped her, despite her crying and attempts to “show him pictures of her kids.”
Jane Doe No. 1’s testimony was cut short Monday afternoon after she began gasping for breath during her testimony about the graphic attack. “I was crying, choking,” she said – and those were the last words she could get out before breaking down, with the judge calling recess for the day at 4:05 p.m.
The other witnesses expected to appear throughout the trial, as described by Thompson in court Monday:
Ambra B., who met Weinstein at Radio City Music Hall in 2015 and later went to his office, where she claims Weinstein put his hand on her breast and up her skirt. She went straight to the NYPD, whose detectives recorded her later interactions with Weinstein and eventually arrested him based on those recordings.
Ashley M., who was cast as a dancer in the Miramax sequel to “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” and met Weinstein on the set in 2003. He “insisted she get in a car” with him and a female aide, who made her feel comfortable – until she disappeared after they arrived at the Ritz-Carlton, where she says Weinstein groped her, forced her onto a bed, grabbed her breasts and masturbated on her face and chest.
Natassia M., who says she briefly interacted with Weinstein at a BAFTA party in 2008, only to find him banging on her hotel room door later that night as she was readying for bed. She says he entered, forced her into bed and raped her, then “calmly washed his hands” and left the room at the Sanderson Hotel.
Jane Doe No. 3 is a licensed massage therapist who started working with Weinstein in 2010. After a session Weinstein followed her into a restroom, backed her in a corner, groped her and masturbated onto the floor. Weinstein told her “this was completely normal, he’d done it with so many people,” Thompson said.
Kelly S was an actor in 1991 who met Weinstein at the Toronto Film Festival. She said she loudly cried and asked him to stop while he raped and assaulted her in a hotel room. Seventeen years later, she ran into him again in Toronto and agreed to meet him to confront him about the ’91 incident, only to have him grope and assault her again while he masturbated.
Originally there were nine women set to testify, but Jane Doe No. 5 has not been addressed so far at this trial. Her attorney, Gloria Allred, was in attendance Monday and told TheWrap: “You will have to talk to the prosecutor.”
The DA’s office issued a statement to TheWrap, saying: “While we have no comment at this time, our office is tirelessly ensuring all of the victims in this case receive justice.”