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Harvey Weinstein Attorney in Testy Exchange With Gavin Newsom’s Wife

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  • Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom testified again in Harvey Weinstein’s LA rape trial.
  • On Tuesday, Siebel Newsom faced intense cross-examination from Weinstein’s attorneys.
  • She was grilled about her interviews with authorities, and the ‘pleasure sounds’ she brought up on Monday.

Harvey Weinstein’s attorney pressed California governor Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom at Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial on rape charges Tuesday, attempting to poke holes in her testimony during a testy cross-examination.

Siebel Newsom took the stand for the second day on Tuesday, clashing with Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman through his rapid line of questioning, which centered around Newsom’s allegation and previous testimony that Weinstein raped her at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills in 2005.

Weinstein — who is already serving a 23-year sentence after a separate trial in New York — is currently standing trial in LA on 7 counts of sexual assault, stemming from the allegations of five different women who say he abused them in hotels between 2004 and 2013. Weinstein denies the allegations and has pleaded not guilty. 

Werksman zeroed in on what Siebel Newsom told Los Angeles District Attorney investigators and a grand jury in 2020 about the alleged assault, also prodding her testimony from Monday. Siebel Newsom told Werksman that she initially thought her claim was beyond the statute of limitations.

“When you told the police, do you think that the things that you told police would lead to the filing of criminal charges?” Werksman asked, according to the trial pool report. “I honestly was just telling my truth and I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be,” Siebel Newsom replied. 

Siebel Newsom said under questioning Tuesday that she was unsure if she told police that in an effort to exit the assault, she helped Weinstein ejaculate, as she testified yesterday.

“Sometimes things are in my head and I can’t remember whether I’ve said them or not,” Siebel Newsom said. 

“Yesterday you mentioned having nightmares. Have you had a difficult time actually discerning what happened in a nightmare and what actually happened in a bedroom at the Peninsula?” Werksman asked. “No, no.” Siebel Newsom answered.

“Over the last several days my client, Jane Doe 4, took the very difficult and painful step to publicly recount her sexual assault at the hands of Harvey Weinstein. She knew that it might have been easier to keep the memory of her 2005 assault buried, but she could not,” Siebel Newsom’s attorney Elizabeth Fegan told Insider in a statement. “Throughout her testimony she demonstrated tremendous strength and resolve in telling her truth and stood fast as Weinstein’s defense team ruthlessly tried to discredit her.”

On Monday, Siebel Newsom testified that to exit the situation, she made “pleasure sounds” and helped Weinstein ejaculate with her hand, then managed to dress and leave the room. Through Werksman’s questions, Siebel Newsom had taken issue with Werksman’s use of the word “orgasm.”

“You had faked an orgasm,” Werksman said. “It was not long. This is not When Harry Met Sally.” Siebel Newsom said, telling Werksman the use of the word orgasm was “so gross.”

In opening statements, Werksman said Siebel Newsom would “be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood” if she didn’t call herself a victim of rape.

Werksman suggested in opening statements that two of the women’s accounts were false, while the other three women engaged in “transactional sex” with Weinstein to further their careers.

“Your energy is just so intense, you’re just adding things,” Siebel Newsom told Werksman, who welcomed her to correct him and said she didn’t answer some of his questions.

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Siebel Newsom, wife of California governor, accuses Harvey Weinstein of rape

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LOS ANGELES, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the wife of California’s governor, testified on Monday that former film producer Harvey Weinstein raped her in 2005 when she was trying to build a career as a producer and actor.

On the witness stand in Los Angeles Superior Court, Siebel Newsom said she met Weinstein, now 70, at the Toronto Film Festival when she was 31 and had acted in some small film and TV roles.

Weeks later in California, Weinstein invited her to meet him at The Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills for what she thought was a business meeting, she testified. She was surprised to learn that she was supposed to meet Weinstein, then one of the most powerful producers in Hollywood, in his hotel suite, she said.

When she arrived, Weinstein had no interest in discussing her projects, Siebel Newsom said. He went to the bathroom, called her over and began masturbating in front of her, she said, before touching her breasts and becoming “aggressive.”

“I was scared. This was not why I came here,” she said, often breaking into tears. “I just remembered physically trying to back away.”

Siebel Newsom said Weinstein got her onto a bed, though she cannot recall if he carried or dragged her there. He then raped her, she said.

“He was just so big and so determined,” she said. “This was hell.”

Weinstein, the man who became the face of #MeToo allegations five years ago, is serving a 23-year prison sentence for sex crimes in New York. He is now on trial in Los Angeles on 11 charges of rape and sexual assault and has pleaded not guilty.

Siebel Newsom, who was identified in court as Jane Doe #4, is one of four women whose allegations are the basis of the Los Angeles charges against Weinstein. Prosecutors had earlier said there were five accusers.

Siebel Newsom’s attorney confirmed in October that Siebel Newsom would testify in the case.

Defense attorneys have argued that all of Weinstein’s sexual encounters were consensual and that his accusers willingly took part in a “casting couch” culture to further their careers in Hollywood.

At the time of the meeting with Siebel Newsom, she had not met her future husband, current California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and she said she did not tell him what happened until after allegations against Weinstein became public.

In cross-examination, Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman questioned Siebel Newsom about why her husband had accepted campaign donations from the producer. She said the governor returned the money after she told him about her encounter.

Weinstein, 70, was convicted of sexual misconduct in New York in February 2020. He was extradited from New York to a Los Angeles prison in July 2021.

In New York, Weinstein is appealing his conviction and 23-year prison sentence. He could face up to 140 years in prison if convicted on all of the charges in Los Angeles.

Reporting by Lisa Richwine. Editing by Gerry Doyle

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Jennifer Siebel Newsom takes stand at Weinstein trial

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, nearly screamed through tears from the witness stand Monday when she told the court Harvey Weinstein raped her in a hotel room and spoke of the devastating effect it had on her in the 17 years since.

“He knows this is not normal!” she shouted during the Los Angeles trial, recalling her thoughts amid the alleged 2005 rape. “He knows this is not consent!”

She then shouted “Oh God!” as if overcome by the memory, and gave in to the crying. Weinstein watched from the defense table.

Siebel Newsom said she found herself unexpectedly alone with Weinstein in a suite at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills, where she had agreed to join him for a meeting. She said she assumed others would be present and they would talk about her career.

When he emerged from the bathroom in a robe with nothing underneath and began groping her while he masturbated, she described her feelings.

“Horror! Horror!” she said. “I’m trembling. I’m like a rock, I’m frigid. This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll!”

She then gave a graphic description of a sexual assault and rape by Weinstein in the suite’s bedroom.

Weinstein’s lawyers, who only got to cross-examine her briefly and will continue on Tuesday, say the two had consensual sex and that she was seeking to use the powerful producer to advance her career.

Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a rape conviction in New York, and has pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault in California involving five women.

Siebel Newsom is the fourth woman Weinstein is accused of sexually assaulting who has taken the stand in Los Angeles. Her testimony was the most dramatic and emotional so far in the three-week trial. She cried throughout her 2 1/2 hours on the stand, beginning with when she was asked to identify the 70-year-old Weinstein for the record.

“He’s wearing a suit, and a blue tie, and he’s staring at me,” she said as tears began to flow.

Now 48, Siebel Newsom described how Weinstein first approached her to introduce himself at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005. At the time, she was a producer and actor with only a few small roles, and he was at the height of his Hollywood power.

“It felt like the Red Sea was parting,” she said as she watched others in the room make way for him. “I don’t know if it was deference or fear.”

But she said when they had a drink later in the day he was “charming” and showed “a genuine interest in talking about my work.”

He was in the Los Angeles area a few weeks later, stopping by her home during a small party to drop off a gift and inviting her to the hotel meeting.

She described how nervous she was after being directed to his hotel suite. Asked by Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez why she didn’t walk away, she said: “Because you don’t say no to Harvey Weinstein.”

“He could make or ruin your career,” she said.

Afterward, she said she felt “so much shame.”

“I was so violated and I don’t know how that happened,” she said, sobbing. “I didn’t see the clues and I didn’t know how to escape.”

Siebel Newsom is known as Jane Doe #4 at the trial, and like the others Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting, her name is not being spoken in court. But both the prosecution and the defense have identified her as the governor’s wife during the trial, and Siebel Newsom’s attorney confirmed to The Associated Press and other news outlets that she is Jane Doe #4.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they have come forward publicly.

Weinstein has had many famous accusers, including A-list actors, since he became a magnet for the #MeToo movement in 2017. But none of the women telling their stories at the trial have had anywhere near the prominence of Siebel Newsom — spouse of the man who last week sailed to a second term as governor of the nation’s most populous state, and may make a run for the White House. The governor was not in the courtroom Monday.

During cross-examination, Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman pressed Siebel Newsom repeatedly about when she told her husband about the assault, pointing out in a transcript of a 2020 interview with prosecutors that she said Newsom was “maybe” the first person she told. The lawyer was the first to say the name “Gavin Newsom” during the testimony, and repeated it often.

She said she “dropped hints along the way” through the years after meeting him when he was San Francisco mayor. And he got the full account when women’s stories about Weinstein became widespread in 2017. He would return former political donations from Weinstein then.

Werksman suggested that the couple sought the donations from Weinstein at a time when Newsom must have known her story.

He took money “from somebody you hinted had done something despicable to you?” Werksman asked.

“It’s complex,” Siebel Newsom responded.

“Well is that just politics,” Werksman asked, “that you just take money from someone who has done something despicable to your wife unless everybody finds out about it?”

Siebel Newsom denied the suggestion from Werksman that new elements of the alleged assault that she had not described in interviews with prosecutors or grand jury testimony came up for the first time in her testimony Tuesday.

He said he wanted to know why her story changed.

“We all heard you being very emotional,” he said. “You’ve had a lot of time to think about it in the past 17 years.”

Siebel Newsom said she had spent much of that time trying not to think about it.

“It’s very traumatic, sir,” she said.

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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

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For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein



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Jennifer Siebel Newsom Testifies At Harvey Weinstein Rape Trial; Witness Breaks Down In Tears On The Stand – Deadline

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UPDATE, 5:06 PM: He knew something was off when we were at the SAG Awards and the way Harvey looked at me,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom told defense lawyer Mark Werkman, jurors and onlookers at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial of her husband and then Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom’s knowledge by 2017 of the producer’s alleged assault of her several years beforehand. “I dropped hints along the way,” California’s First Partner added in what was often emotional, tearful and graphic testimony this afternoon.

Scrutinized by Werkman about when and how she informed her now Governor spouse of the alleged rape by Weinstein in his suite at the Peninsula Hotel over 17 years ago, Siebel Newsom was frequently overcome by sobs. Centering on the political connections of frequent big bucks contributor Weinstein over the decades to various high profile Democrats, the defense lawyer remained oblivious to the witness’ anguish Monday. “Well, is that just politics, that you just take money from someone who has done something despicable to your wife unless everybody finds out about it?” Werkman said in his cross-examination this afternoon.

Identified as Jane Doe #4 in Weinstein’s West Coast trial, Siebel Newsom revealed her true name last month before testimony in the case began in Judge Lisa Lench’s DTLA courtroom. Pillared on the stand today when the defense had their turn, Siebel Newsom is expected to be back for more testimony tomorrow in what could be the closing days of this trial.

With Weinstein facing almost a dozen sex crimes charges and looking at 140 years maximum behind bars if found guilty, sources on both sides have expressed that Siebel Newsom’s testimony could prove pivotal in the case

Earlier in the day, after initially returning from the lunch break, the witness described in vivid detail going to meet Weinstein in the Beverly Hills hotel when she was young and unmarried filmmaker/actress charmed by the attention the then mogul gave her. “I was confused,” Siebel Newsom explained when she was contacted suddenly by a Weinstein assistant to be told the meeting would be in the producer’s suite. “I was a little hesitant. I was expecting to meet him where the noise and the buzz was and there was all this conversation. I was just confused, and I didn’t know what to do.

Let into Weinstein’s “opulent” suite by an assistant, Siebel Newsom stated how things quickly took a turn for the worse and the deadly. Called to join Weinstein in the bathroom, she found him masturbating. Overcome and admitting she found some memories of the incident “confusing,” the witness told Deputy DA Marlene Martinez’ and the court how Weinstein explained what was happening to her. “He was asserting himself and tried to tell me that he, he mentioned several actresses names, he tried to tell me that this was the industry, and in a way like threaten me.”

Allegedly hauling then Jennifer Siebel into the suite’s main bedroom, Weinstein began assaulting her again, putting his fingers inside her, the witness said. 

He knows this is not normal, he knows this is not consent,” Siebel Newsom asserted in a loud voice with Weinstein sitting mere feet away at the defense table with his lawyers.

“I could tell he just needed, he was so determined, just so scary, just all about him and his pleasure his need for satisfaction so I just did it to make it stop,” she added of Weinstein tried putting his “weird and messed up” penis inside her and having non-consensual sex with her and then performing forced cunnilingus on her. “Oh, I just made some noises to get him to ejaculate faster,” Siebel Newsom said of then masturbating Weinstein.”  

“There was silence on my part,” Siebel Newsom told the court after Weinstein ejaculated. “I just remember not having words. I just wanted to get the f*ck out of there, pardon my language,” she said, crying again. “I just remember being shocked by everything, Siebel Newsom said of the small talk Weinstein made afterwards and her leaving his suite. It was like the Twilight Zone, I just walked down this hallway it felt like forever,” she noted. “It was like an out-of-body experience. I just remember I got my car at the valet.”

Siebel Newsom admitted on the stand that she did not go to police after the incident. A decision she indicated was in part because of a bad experience she had with law enforcement after her sibling’s death years before She also admitted she did have personal and political contact with Weinstein in the years since the alleged assault – a fact the defense will surely continue to emphasis in their questioning of the witness on Tuesday.

PREVIOUSLY, 12:27 PM: “He was really focused on telling me I was special, and I was different,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom told a downtown Los Angeles jury Monday of her first meeting with Harvey Weinstein.

“He was like the kingmaker, he was the top of the industry,” she said on the stand about encountering Weinstein in 2005 at the Toronto Film Festival. “I was a working actress, I had little roles, guest-starring roles on TV shows and films, and I was working on some short films, I’d been in two features … but they were small roles.”

Expected to continue her testimony this afternoon, Siebel Newsom broke down in tears at one point this morning when asked to point out Weinstein in the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center courtroom. With two security guards in the front row of Judge Lisa Lench’s courtroom, Siebel Newsom took the stand to questions from Deputy L.A. County D.A. Marlene Martinez after several other witness had testified Monday.

Amanda Edwards/Getty Images

Having first revealed in late 2017 the interaction she had with Weinstein years beforehand, Siebel Newsom went public via her lawyer on October 10 that she was Jane Doe #4 in the incarcerated producer’s L.A. trial. “Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap,” attorney Elizabeth Fegan said in a statement. “She intends to testify at his trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women.”

Siebel Newsom’s testimony comes after her husband, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a potential candidate for U.S. president at some point, was easily reelected last week.

Weinstein is facing grand jury indictments of four counts of rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, one count of sexual penetration by use of force, plus one count of sexual battery by restraint and sexual battery in incidents involving five women in L.A. County from 2004 to 2013. Sentenced to 23 years in prison by a Manhattan jury in March 2020 for multiple sex crimes, and now on appeal, the 70-year old Weinstein faces 140 years imprisonment if found guilty in L.A.

In his opening statement in the trial last month, Weinstein lawyer Mark Werkman dismissed the Siebel Newsom, the First Partner of California, as no more than “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood” if she hadn’t married now-Gov. Newsom. As testimony from other Jane Does and witness commenced last month in the West Coast trial, information appeared in the press of contributions Weinstein made to Newsom’s various campaigns over the years, as well as encounters one-time filmmaker and actress Siebel Newsom — who married Newsom in 2008 when he was mayor of San Francisco — and her husband had with Weinstein after the alleged assault in late 2004-early 2005 in L.A.

In late October, Lench curtailed the defense’s ability to question Siebel Newsom about her 2007 communication with Weinstein over an affair her then-boyfriend Newsom had with a campaign aide’s spouse. The judge also limited the prosecution’s reach to ask about texts Siebel Newsom had with Louisette Geiss in 2015 about Weinstein and comments about former First Daughter Malia Obama’s internship at the Weinstein Co. in early 2017.

Weinstein’s trial is expected to run until the end of the month before the case goes to the jury.



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Carey Mulligan felt ‘weight of responsibility’ for character and Weinstein victims in She Said

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Carey Mulligan plays one of the two New York Times journalists who exposed the sexual abuse allegations against Harvey Weinstein in the new film She Said.

And in a recent interview at the Los Angeles premiere, the British actress confessed to feeling a ‘weight of responsibility’ to do her real-life character justice, as well as the victims of Weinstein.

It tuns out this is the first time Mulligan has ever played a person who is still alive.

Heavy role: Carey Mulligan, 37, confessed she felt the ‘weight of responsibility’ playing one of the two New York Times journalists who exposed the sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein while shooting the biographical drama film She Said; actress is pictured at premiere of She Said in London on October 14

The Oscar-nominated actress portrays Megan Twohey, who along with her NYT colleague Jodi Kantor, played by Zoe Kazan, broke the Weinstein story in 2017.

Their investigative work ended up exposing the powerful film producer’s history of abuse and sexual misconduct against women, which is said to have gone on for three decades.

The allegations also served as a catalyst for the burgeoning #MeToo movement and eventually resulted in Weinstein being sentenced to 23 years in prison, although he could be facing more prison time with a new trial in Los Angeles and more sexual assault charges in London.

Directed by Maria Schrader from a screenplay written by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, She Said is based on the book of the same name by the two journalists that was released in 2019.

In She Said, Mulligan (left) plays Megan Twohey and Zoe Kazan portrays Jodi Kantor, the two journalists who broke the Weinstein story in 2017 and then chronicled their investigative work in a book of the same name that was released two years later

Challenging: ‘I think we felt that weight of responsibility,’ the British actress said of playing a real-life character, all while having the real victims still fresh in her mind

‘I think we felt that weight of responsibility, and I felt that on other jobs,’ Mulligan, 37, said of her role within a story that’s still so fresh in people’s minds. ‘I think particularly when you play a real person, you have that, but the stories that we were telling are so real and so recent, and not just to the people that were involved in the film, but to viewers, to an audience.’

She added, ‘You’re aware that this story will impact people who go and see it in the cinema, so I think we all felt like it was a big task and we took it very seriously.’

The film not only lays out the details of how the two journalists broke the Weinstein story, but also how the story has impacted their lives.

In order to get an up-close look at both sides of that story, Mulligan was able to meet Twohey and get ‘unfettered access’ to her life. While spending quality time together, the two ladies ended up hitting it off and bonding with each other.

‘I’ve never played a person who’s still alive,’ the London, England native said. ‘I played real people, but I’ve been reading autobiographies, so this was really exciting, and she’s just the coolest person. So I wanted to be her friend. I wanted her to like me.’

Twohey and Kantor ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Weinstein case.

Acclaimed real-life journalists: Jodi Kantor (left )and Megan Twohey (right) ended up winning a Pulitzer Prize for their reporting on the Weinstein case

In all, more than 80 women came forward and made allegations of sexual harassment and/or rape against Weinstein. Initially, he was convicted on charges of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape in New York in 2020, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

He is currently on trial in Los Angeles for other sexual assault claims as he prepares to face more charges in London. 

Along with Mulligan and Kazan, the film also stars Patricia Clarkson, Andre Braugher, Jennifer Ehle, Samantha Morton, Ashley Judd, Sean Cullen, Angela Yeoh. Tom Pelphrey, Adam Shapiro, Anastasia Barzee, James Austin Johnson, Kelly McQuail, Sarah Ann Masse, and Mike Houston as Harvey Weinstein. 

After making its premiere at the 60th New York Film Festival on October 13, and the BFI London Film Festival the following day, the film debuted in Los Angeles at the 2022 AFI Fest on Friday, November 4.

She Said is scheduled to hit theaters across the U.S. on November 18.

Making a splash: After making its premiere at the 60th New York Film Festival on October 13, She Said is slated to hit theaters across the U.S. on November 18; Mulligan and Kazan are pictured in a scene from She Said

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Weinstein Trial: Expert Testifies About Rape Victim Behaviors

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“Rapes are not what we see on TV,” Dr. Barbara Ziv told the jury during Harvey Weinstein’s trial in Los Angeles, when she was called by the prosecution on Tuesday to testify about “rape myths” — in other words, debunking common-held societal beliefs about rape and sexual assault.

“Most of the things people believe are not accurate or supported by facts,” Ziv said, telling the jury that behaviors of rape victims are “counterintuitive.”

Ziv is a forensic psychiatrist and licensed physician who specializes in all aspects of sexual assault, assessing behaviors of both victims and perpetrators. Over the course of her decades-long medical career, she has worked with more than a thousand victims of sexual assault, but has no affiliation to the Weinstein case and has not worked with any of the Jane Does who allege they are victims of Weinstein’s abuse.

Ziv testified as an expert in Weinstein’s first criminal trial in New York City in 2020, as well as Bill Cosby’s 2018 sexual assault trial in Pennsylvania.

Ziv was on the stand for hours. After her presentation to the jury, Weinstein’s defense attorney, Alan Jackson, cross-examined Ziv at length, focusing on the difference between the legal and medical definitions of rape and consent.

“You testified about rape myths … Those are broad generalizations about conduct,” Jackson said, to which Ziv replied, “I came here to educate what the truth is about sexual assault.”

Ziv was called on by the prosecution as an expert to bolster their case. It’s expected that later in the trial, the defense will also call on a doctor or medical expert to weigh in on memory loss and other issues that would present the jury with a different perspective than Ziv’s studies and psychiatric work.

Memory is complicated, Ziv explained to jurors, and victims of sexual assault hold onto memories of “central trauma” forever, but smaller details of the attack — such as the day, time, what their perpetrator was wearing, etc. — could be lost over the years.

“If people don’t report promptly, they say they don’t remember years later,” Ziv said. “It’s not that they’re lying … people try to give their best … they are trying to remember.”

Ziv explained that while police sometimes use those “memory problems” to say a victim is not credible, that is changing as the understanding of rape victims has progressed in recent years.

As part of her presentation, Ziv broke down “rape myths,” telling the jury that most behaviors the general public would assume of rape victims are untrue, according to psychiatrists who specialize in sexual assault.

Rapes often occur among people who know each other, despite most people believing assaults are usually by strangers, Ziv said. “Most people are raped by somebody who is known to them,” she told the jury. She explained that while “stranger rapes” do occur, most sexual assaults involved people who know each other in some capacity, unlike the representation commonly seen in television and film.

Victims of sexual assault do not resist their assailants, despite most people believing they would fight back, the psychiatrist told jurors. “Most individuals do not resist,” Ziv said. “Even aggressive verbal shouting and screaming is not as common as we may think. … This is counterintuitive. You’d think if you’re being violated, you’d fight back.” She added, “The bottom line is, that’s not the case.”

During cross-examination, Jackson asked Ziv if “some do fight back.” She responded, “Some,” and then continued, “Do some women fight back? Sure. The myth is that it’s common.” Jackson then asked, “Some do scream and yell and holler?” Ziv replied the same way, responding, “Some.”

Ziv told jurors that sexual assault victims do not typically report promptly, despite most people believing they would go to the police if they were assaulted.

“Sexual assault is an underreported crime,” Ziv said. “Even when it is reported, it is prosecuted very rarely.”

She explained that when victims do report an assault, it’s often not to authorities, but perhaps to a friend or family member — but never saying anything at all is also common. Ziv said there is a “large percentage [that] never tell anyone in their life.” The feeling of “shame” is a reason why many victims do not talk about their attack, she said, but there are many reasons why victims don’t speak up. “It’s a very difficult subject to discuss.” The psychiatrist added, “They fear the response … intrusion into their private life … fear of being categorized as promiscuous or a liar.”

Ziv told the jury that the demeanor of a sexual assault victim following an assault, whether it be happy or sad, does not indicate whether or not they have been assaulted. “Behavior after sexual assault is variable,” she said. “You cannot tell whether an individual has been sexually assaulted based on the aftermath of their behavior.”

Victims of sexual assault often have continued contact with their perpetrator after the attack, Ziv explained, noting that the common belief is that a victim of rape would never see or talk to their rapist ever again. She testified that most people do see their perpetrator again, and might willingly continue to communicate with them for a variety of reasons.

“People work in the same circle,” she suggested, explaining that victims may not want peers to find out what happened. “It is a really humiliating experience to be sexually assaulted by someone who is known to you.”

A reason victims of sexual assault may speak to their perpetrator after is because “they want to make sense of it” or they want an apology. Very often, continued contact occurs because victims fear retaliation and “collateral damage,” Ziv said, especially when a perpetrator is in a position of power. “When a perpetrator damages other aspects of your life … those things affect your trajectory forever.”

Ziv also told the jury that it is common for sexual assault victims to have consensual sex with their attacker later on. “A lot of times people feel like they are just damaged goods, and nobody else is going to want them so they begin to act like damaged goods.”

Jackson challenged Ziv, asking, “Some do avoid their attacker at all costs?”

“Yes,” she responded.

And when he asked, “Some do go to the police immediately?” She responded, “Some.”



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Harvey Weinstein Sighed, Shook Head As Accuser Detailed Alleged Rape

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  • Harvey Weinstein’s LA trial on rape charges continued Tuesday with witness testimony.
  • One of Weinstein’s accusers described in harrowing detail her alleged assault in February 2013.
  • Weinstein reacted in court with a head shake after she said she was afraid he might have killed her.

Harvey Weinstein visibly reacted in court on Tuesday as one of his accusers testified in harrowing detail about the assault she says she suffered at his hands.

The disgraced mogul’s Los Angeles trial on rape charges continued Monday with opening arguments and the start of witness testimony. LA County prosecutors have charged Weinstein with 11 counts of sexual assault stemming from allegations by five different women who accused the one-time producer of abusing them in LA hotels between 2004 and 2013.

Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison following an East Coast trial but faces an additional life sentence heading into the West Coast proceedings. He has denied the charges and pleaded not guilty.

All five women are expected to testify against Weinstein during what will likely be a weeks-long trial. Several of Weinstein’s female accusers are using pseudonyms in court.

The first woman to take the stand, identified as Jane Doe 1, continued her testimony on Tuesday morning after she broke down in court on Monday afternoon. She began the day by apologizing for her emotional outburst, telling the court she “can’t control this.”

Jane Doe 1, an actress who lived in Italy, has accused Weinstein of raping her in a hotel room in February 2013 during the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival. She told the jury on Monday that he showed up unannounced to her hotel room late at night and forced his way inside.

She wasn’t initially fearful, she said, but became scared when he began to talk about a massage: “I felt guilty I did or said something to make it seem okay,” she testified.

Jane Doe 1 testified in disturbing detail about the assault, during which she said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex and raped her in a bathroom, despite her pleas for him to stop. She said she was terrified, disgusted, and panicked as she tried to fend him off, but credited his large size with her inability to avoid the assault or fight back.

She told the courtroom that she considered trying to run away or even hitting Weinstein with a lamp, but was frozen in fear.

“I regret this a lot,” Jane Doe 1 testified, saying that her body felt frozen. “My body wouldn’t listen to me. I was scared he’d kill me.”

In court at this moment, Weinstein reacted to her testimony by shaking his head and sighing.

Jane Doe 1 paused several times throughout her graphic testimony to take deep breaths in an apparent effort to maintain composure. 

“I wanted to die,” she said as she recounted the experience. “It was humiliating, miserable. I didn’t fight. I just remember how he looked in the mirror, telling me to look at him. I wish it never happened to me.”

“I wasn’t there in my head,” she added. “I was praying.”

After the assault, Jane Doe said Weinstein cleaned himself with a towel and acted like nothing happened. He complimented her and then warned her not to say anything to anyone, she testified.

“I was feeling — and I still have this feeling — very guilty,” she said. “Humiliated.”

Jane Doe 1 didn’t go to the police until October 2017, after she was inspired by her own 16-year-old daughter’s experience with sexual harassment, she said. When prosecutors asked why she waited so long to report, she said she had been afraid.

“It is hard to live with this guilt. I realized he must be somebody bad to do this to me,” she testified. “I was afraid for my life, for my kids, for my reputation.” 

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Harvey Weinstein faces 11 charges of rape and assault in Los Angeles court | Harvey Weinstein

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Opening arguments in the Los Angeles trial of Harvey Weinstein are set for Monday, as the once-powerful Hollywood producer faces 11 charges of rape and sexual assault.

Weinstein, 70, is serving a 23-year sentence after being convicted of sex crimes in New York in February 2020.

In Los Angeles, Weinstein is facing charges for alleged abuse involving five women in the Beverly Hills and Los Angeles area between 2004 and 2013.

Among the accusers is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary film-maker, actor and wife of the California Governor, Gavin Newsom.

Siebel Newsom is expected to testify that Weinstein sexually assaulted her during what she thought was going to be a business meeting, according to her attorney, Elizabeth Fegan.

The identities of the other accusers are being kept secret in court documents, which refer to them as Jane Does 1 through 5.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and has said all of his sexual encounters with women were consensual.

Weinstein, the Oscar-winning producer of “Shakespeare in Love” and “The King’s Speech,” became the face of #MeToo allegations five years ago, when prominent actors, including Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie, began to speak out about his behavior. Investigations by the New York Times and the New Yorker exposed both the powerful producer and the people and institutions that had enabled his conduct for decades.

Since 2017, nearly 100 women have publicly accused Weinstein of sexual violence and inappropriate sexual behavior during encounters going back to the 1970s.

Weinstein was tried in New York on five charges and convicted of two in February 2020. He was extradited from New York to a Los Angeles prison in July 2021.

A jury of nine men and three women was seated in Los Angeles on Thursday.

Among the potential witnesses who may testify in the trial is the actor Mel Gibson, who prosecutors say was a friend of one of the accusers – a masseuse who alleges Weinstein sexually assaulted her after giving him a massage in Beverly Hills in 2010.

Now in declining health, Weinstein was seated in a wheelchair during jury selection in Los Angeles superior court. He could face up to 140 years in prison if convicted on all 11 of the charges in Los Angeles.

In New York, Weinstein is appealing his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault, and is more than two years into his 23-year prison sentence. The state’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in that case.

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Mel Gibson can testify in Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial, judge says | Harvey Weinstein

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Mel Gibson can testify about what he learned from one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers, a judge ruled on Friday in the rape and sexual assault trial of the disgraced movie mogul.

The 66-year-old actor and director was one of many witnesses whose identities were revealed in Los Angeles superior court. The judge and attorneys had taken a break from jury selection for motions on what evidence will be allowed and who can testify. The witness list is sealed.

The judge, Lisa B Lench, ruled that Gibson can testify in support of his masseuse and friend, who will be known as Jane Doe No 3.

Weinstein, 70, is accused of committing sexual battery by restraint against the woman, one of 11 rape and sexual assault counts in the trial.

Prosecutors say that after getting a massage from the woman at a hotel in Beverly Hills in May 2010, a naked Weinstein followed her into a bathroom and masturbated.

Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denied any non-consensual sexual activity. His attorneys argued against allowing Gibson to testify, saying what he learned from the woman while getting a massage does not constitute a “fresh complaint” under the law by which Gibson would take the stand.

A “fresh complaint” under California law allows the introduction of evidence of sexual assault or another crime if the victim reported it to someone else voluntarily and relatively promptly.

Prosecutors said that when Gibson brought up Weinstein’s name, the woman had a traumatic response and Gibson understood she had been sexually assaulted. Gibson did not remember the timing of the exchange but the prosecution will use another witness, Allison Weiner, who remembers speaking to Gibson and the woman in 2015.

Judge Lench said Gibson’s testimony will depend on how the accuser describes the exchange when she takes the stand, and she may rule against it at that time.

A Weinstein attorney, Mark Werksman, argued that the defense should be allowed to cross-examine Gibson about widely publicized antisemitic remarks during an arrest in 2006, and about racist statements publicized in 2010.

Lench said discussion of Gibson’s racism was not relevant to the trial but she would allow questioning of whether he had a personal bias and animus toward Weinstein.

Werksman argued that Gibson had such a bias both because Weinstein is Jewish and because Weinstein published a book that criticized the depiction of Jews in Gibson’s 2004 film The Passion of the Christ.

“Any evidence of Mr Gibson’s racism or antisemitism would give rise to a bias against my client, who challenged him,“ Werksman said.

The lawyer mistakenly said the movie won a best picture Oscar. Weinstein, whose films once dominated the Oscars, shook his head at the defense table.

“Sorry, my client would know better than I would,“ Werksman said. “But it was an award-winning movie.”

The defense also argued Gibson was trying to whitewash his image by focusing on Weinstein and asserting himself as a champion of the #MeToo movement.

The prosecution argued that Gibson had made no such suggestions, and that at the time of the conversation with his masseuse was discussing getting into a business deal with Weinstein, showing there was no bias.

Marlene Martinez, a deputy district attorney, called Gibson’s past comments “despicable” but said they had no relevance for why he would be called to the stand.

Gibson’s testimony raises the prospect of two men, once among the most powerful in Hollywood but who have undergone public downfalls, facing each other in court.

An email seeking comment from a representative for Gibson was not returned.

Lench also found that the Melrose Place actor Daphne Zuniga could testify in a similar capacity for a woman known at trial as Jane Doe No 4, whom Weinstein is accused of raping in 2004 or 2005.

Weinstein is serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault in New York. That state’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal. He was brought to Los Angeles for the trial that began Monday, five years after women’s stories about him gave momentum to the #MeToo movement.

Friday’s arguments came a day after the premiere of the film She Said, which tells the story of the two New York Times reporters whose stories brought Weinstein down. Weinstein’s attorneys sought to have the LA trial delayed because publicity from the film might taint the jury pool. The judge denied their motion.

The trial is expected to last eight weeks. The judge and attorneys will return to jury selection on Monday. Opening statements are expected on 24 October.

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Mel Gibson Could Testify At Harvey Weinstein Rape Trial – Deadline

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Mel Gibson could possibly take the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes trial here in Los Angeles.

In a motions hearing today at the Criminal Courts building in downtown Los Angeles, lawyers for the incarcerated producer and the L.A. Country District Attorney’s office argued over whether or not the Oscar-winning Gibson would be allowed to testify as a corroborating witness for Jane Doe No. 3 in the upcoming trial.

In May 18, 2021, Gibson said in an interview that when he was getting a massage from Jane Doe #3, he noticed that when he mentioned “Harvey,” the woman began to cry. The initial response and more gave Gibson the idea that Weinstein had sexually assaulted or groped her. The alleged assault by Weinstein occurred at a hotel in LA County in 2010, according to court documents.

Even though Judge Lisa Lench will allow Gibson to take the stand in the high-profile trial, that does not mean that he necessarily will. In cases like this, it is common that there are more witnesses on the list than are actually called, not matter how much star power they have. Though Gibson’s potential presence on the stand was discussed in open court today, the witness list in the Weinstein trial remains officially sealed.

Weinstein lawyer Mark Werksman unsuccessfully argued Friday that GIbson did not like Weinstein and should not be allowed to give testimony.

“Shortly after (Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ) came out, Mr. Weinstein’s publishing company, Miramax Books, put out a book called Perspectives on Passion of the Christ debunking the movie’s anti-semitic overtones and false depiction of the Jews.”  

“This created a feud between Mr. Gibson and a Weinstein. Mr. Weinstein is jewish … Mr. Gibson knew that,” Werksman said, as the first week of jury selection wrapped up. The defense lawyer continued, “Any evidence of Mr. Gibson’s racism or anti-semitism would give rise to a bias against my client, who challenged him.” 

The judge said Weinstein’s lawyers could bring up the Passion of the Christ and Weinstein’s book on its anti-Semitism argument, but not quotes from Gibson’s 2006 arrest in which he made anti-Semitic remarks.

With California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom now identified among the alleged victims and expected to testify, Weinstein faces grand jury indictments of four counts of rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, one count of sexual penetration by use of force, plus one count of sexual battery by restraint and sexual battery in incidents involving five women in L.A. County from 2004 to 2013. Sentenced to 23-years in prison by a Manhattan jury in March 2020 for multiple sex crimes, and moved to the West Coast in the summer of 2021., 70-year old Weinstein is looking at 140 years behind bars if found guilty in L.A.

Once a jury is seated in the trial at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center, opening statements are expected to begin on October 23.



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