LOS ANGELES –
An lawyer for Harvey Weinstein on Friday repeatedly challenged a lady over why she did not increase extra objections or depart the lodge room in Puerto Rico the place she stated he sexually assaulted her throughout a 2003 movie shoot.
Attorney Mark Werksman requested the lady, identified throughout Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial solely as Ashley M., whether or not she ever had a second thought the place she stated to herself, “I’m just going to walk right back out that door?”
“I was worried,” she stated. “I knew he was big and I didn’t know what to do,” she stated.”
The girl was a 22-year-old dancer on the Puerto Rico set of the movie “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights,” which was produced by Weinstein’s firm, Miramax.
In her first day of testimony Thursday, Ashley M. stated that she went with Weinstein to the lodge as a result of she had been assured she was headed to a gathering to debate future alternatives, however she stated as soon as they have been alone, Weinstein pushed her on to a mattress, straddled her, and masturbated.
Werksman requested her whether or not she actually did not anticipate something sexual after Weinstein, in response to her earlier testimony, introduced up getting a “naked massage” from her throughout their first dialog on the set.
She repeated that she had been reassured by the lady who was Weinstein’s assistant on the time that she would stay with them, and that he solely needed to debate future tasks.
“I just basically did what I thought the people that were running the meeting wanted me to do. I really had no interest in being an actress. I had spent my life dancing,” she stated. “I was engaged to be married. I wanted to finally start my life, maybe finally wanted to start a family at that time.”
Weinstein’s assistant didn’t observe them into the room, however withdrew and closed the door, she stated.
She had stated she wasn’t positive they have been headed to a non-public room, that they is perhaps going to an workplace or another house on the lodge.
Werksman requested whether or not she thought to herself, “I’m now entering a hotel, this isn’t about work. Did that dawn on you at any moment?”
She stated she was being deferential as a result of Weinstein was “in charge,” a sense she bought strongly from others on the set.
Werksman requested her repeatedly why she did not protest extra.
“Did you verbalize or express the panic you were feeling out loud?” Werksman requested.
She answered sure.
She stated earlier in her testimony that she is aware of she instructed him to cease, however that she saved most of her objections silent out of fear.
“I was too scared,” she stated.
She stated Weinstein instructed her “It’s OK, it’s not like we’re having sex.”
Werksman requested her if she responded to that.
“I just was trying to leave,” she stated. “I was just hoping that nothing worse was going to happen.”
Werksman requested how she had been dressed. She stated she could not keep in mind, however does not assume she was within the orange gown that was her wardrobe for the shoot.
Ashley M. just isn’t one of the 5 ladies Weinstein is charged with sexually assaulting. She is one of 4 others who’ve been allowed to testify on the trial about his propensity for such crimes.
Weinstein has pleaded not responsible, and denied partaking in any non-consensual sex.
The 70-year-old former film mogul is already serving a 23-year sentence for a New York conviction that’s beneath enchantment.
The Associated Press doesn’t usually identify individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they’ve come ahead publicly.
Ashley M. instructed her story to the New York Times in October of 2017, when the newspaper’s accounts of ladies who say Weinstein sexually assaulted them put the film government on the middle of the #MeToo motion.
Her trial testimony was the primary time she has instructed her story in a courtroom.