LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A model-actress testified today that the night former film producer Harvey Weinstein allegedly raped and sexually assaulted her in a Los Angeles hotel room was the ``longest night'' of her life -- and said she tried afterward to deny to herself that it had happened.
The woman -- identified in court only as ``Jane Doe #1'' -- wrapped up nearly three days of testimony in Weinstein's trial, saying she or her public relations team posted a series of photos of her, including one with actor Al Pacino, on her social media accounts in the days after the alleged February 2013 attack.
``It was the longest night of my life,'' she said of her alleged encounter with Weinstein in her hotel room.
She acknowledged that she continued to stay in the same room, and that a photo of her in the bathroom -- where she alleges Weinstein raped her --was posted on her social media 11 days after the alleged attack.
``I was trying to deny to myself that this happened to me,'' she told the downtown Los Angeles jury hearing the case against Weinstein. ``I have to act like normal.''
She said she regretted ``that I didn't fight, that I didn't stand up for myself.'' Under cross-examination, defense attorney Alan Jackson asked her if she had any photos or videos of any injuries from the alleged assault.
``No,'' she responded, questioning why someone who had been raped would make a video.
When asked if she had any evidence to corroborate that she had been with Weinstein that night, she said, ``I had his jacket, but I gave it away.'' She said she turned over the jacket to the hotel's front desk, but wasn't given a receipt for it.
The woman testified that she opted to go to Los Angeles police in October 2017, after her teenage daughter told her she was being sexually harassed by a boy at school. When asked about graphic details of Weinstein's anatomy, she maintained that she ``never changed my story'' since her initial interview with police. Weinstein is charged with three counts -- forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object -- involving the alleged attack on the woman in February 2013. She told jurors she received an unsolicited visit from Weinstein purportedly to talk with her in her hotel room and that she didn't know how he found out where she was staying under a pseudonym.
The prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement Monday that they would also hear from three other alleged victims -- named in the indictment only as ``Jane Doe #2,'' ``Jane Doe #3'' and ``Jane Doe #4'' -- along with four other women who are expected to testify about alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein.
Weinstein's attorney, Mark Werksman, countered that two of the victims named in the charges ``just made it up'' and that it was ``transactional sex'' for the other two women. Weinstein, now 70, was indicted on 11 charges -- including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by a foreign object and sexual battery by restraint -- involving five women. But the prosecutor made no mention of Jane Doe #5, who is named in four of the counts in the grand jury's indictment, and the status of those charges was not immediately available.
In a statement released Monday, the Los Angeles County DistrictAttorney's Office said it had ``no comment at this time'' on the charges involving ``Jane Doe #5,'' adding only that its office is ``tirelessly ensuring that all of the victims in this case receive justice.'' During a hearing outside the jury's presence Tuesday, Werksman noted that the defense is ``not anticipating'' that jurors will hear about all five alleged victims named in the indictment, but only the four mentioned by the prosecutor in his opening statement.
The prosecutor said in his opening statement that the alleged victims feared that Weinstein -- whom he described as the most powerful person in the entertainment industry at the time -- could crush their careers if they reported the allegations, but that one model came forward soon afterward to report the alleged attack on her in a New York hotel room in 2015. The prosecutor said one of the alleged victims -- Jane Doe #4 -- is now married to California's governor and showed a photo of Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, but said she was a ``powerless actor trying to make her way in Hollywood'' when she met Weinstein 17 years ago.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who was not named during the court session, is expected to testify about the alleged attack in a hotel room at The Peninsula in Beverly Hills after initially meeting him at a film festival in Toronto in 2005.
``Jane Doe #4'' reported that she was ``crying and shaking'' after Weinstein allegedly took her by the arm from a hotel room bathroom, pulled her onto the bed and told her, ``Relax, this is going to make you feel better,'' according to the prosecutor.
Weinstein began his entertainment career as a concert promoter and then, with his brother Bob, created Miramax Films, which produced a number of ``iconic and award-winning films'' including ``Pulp Fiction,'' ``The English Patient,'' ``Good Will Hunting'' and ``Shakespeare In Love,'' among others, the prosecutor noted.
The movies launched the careers of Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Quentin Tarantino and Gwyneth Paltrow, Thompson said. Weinstein's attorney agreed that his client was a ``major player in Hollywood,'' but called him a ``man of humble origins'' who was ``not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.''
He told jurors that the allegations ``can be traced directly to the #MeToo movement,'' and said that his client ``became the epicenter of the #MeToo movement.''
Werksman told the panel that Weinstein's accusers were ``women who willingly played the game by the rules applied back then'' and now ``claim they were raped and sexually assaulted.''
``He's not Brad Pitt or George Clooney. He's not hot,'' Weinstein's lawyer told jurors. ``They had sex with him because he was powerful ...'' Weinstein, he said, ``was once a very successful movie producer'' whose ``name was synonymous with Oscars and hit movies'' -- but is now described as a ``vile monster.''
Weinstein was extradited from New York, where he was convicted of raping an aspiring actress and of a criminal sex act against a former production assistant. The state's highest court has since agreed to hear his appeal involving that case. Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench -- who described the charges as
``essentially sexual assaults or assaults of a sexual nature'' -- told prospective jurors that the trial is expected to last about two months, including the jury selection process, which began Oct. 10. Weinstein, who was brought into court in a wheelchair while jurors were not present, remains behind bars.
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