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Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to raping
the aspiring actress, Jessica Mann, and to sexually assaulting
another woman, Mimi Haleyi. Since 2017, more than 80 women have
accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
Weinstein, who produced films including “The English Patient”
and “Shakespeare in Love,” has denied the allegations and said
any sexual encounters were consensual.
The trial is widely seen as a milestone in the #MeToo movement
in which women have accused powerful men in business,
entertainment, media and politics of sexual misconduct.
Assistant District Attorney Meghan Hast told jurors in her
opening statement last week that in 2013, Weinstein invited
Mann, then 25 and an aspiring actress, to read a script in a
hotel room, where he pushed her onto a bed and forcibly
performed oral sex on her.
Mann, Hast said, then made "a decision that had disastrous
consequences for her" and decided to have a relationship with
Weinstein. Hast said Mann avoided having sexual intercourse with
him for about a month, when Weinstein raped her.
Hast told jurors that Mann went on to maintain some form of a
relationship with Weinstein even after that, though she felt
"trapped."
Damon Cheronis, one of Weinstein's lawyers, said in his opening
statement that communications between Mann and Weinstein would
show that their relationship was entirely consensual.
Jurors in the trial have already heard from Haleyi, who said
Weinstein forced oral sex on her in his home in 2006, as well as
from actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein violently
raped her in her apartment in 1993 or 1994.
While Sciorra's allegation is too old to support a separate rape
charge against Weinstein, prosecutors hope it will show he is a
repeat sexual predator - a charge that could put him in prison
for life.
Two women who are not part of the criminal charges, Dawn Dunning
and Tarale Wulff, have also testified that Weinstein sexually
assaulted them. Prosecutors are offering their testimony as
evidence of Weinstein's methods and motives.
A third such witness, Lauren Young, is expected to testify later
in the trial.
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Noeleen
Walder and Leslie Adler)
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