LOS ANGELES –
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actor who’s married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, is among the accusers of Harvey Weinstein who will testify at his rape and sexual assault trial that started Monday, her legal professional mentioned.
“Like many different ladies, my shopper was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported enterprise assembly that turned out to be a entice,” Newsom’s legal professional Elizabeth Fegan mentioned in an announcement. “She intends to testify at his trial with a purpose to search some measure of justice for survivors, and as a part of her life’s work to enhance the lives of girls.”
Weinstein, the 70-year-old former film mogul who’s serving a 23-year jail sentence after a conviction in New York, has pleaded not responsible to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault involving Newsom and 4 different ladies. All of them will testify as Jane Doe through the eight-week trial in a Los Angeles courtroom, the place jury choice started Monday.
The Associated Press doesn’t usually title individuals who say they have been sexually abused, however Newsom agreed to be named by means of her legal professional.
The information of her involvement was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Newsom, 48, appeared in small roles in dozens of movies and tv exhibits between 2002 and 2011. Recently she has directed documentaries together with “The Great American Lie” in 2020 and “Fair Play” from this yr. Both cope with gender in society.
She wrote about her expertise with Weinstein in a 2017 essay within the Huffington Post after the New York Times and New Yorker tales made him a magnet of the .MeToo motion, however gave few particulars.
Weinstein, who’s being held in a Los Angeles County jail, was introduced Monday into courtroom in a wheelchair by means of a facet door, and climbed from it rigorously right into a seat subsequent to one in all his attorneys on the protection desk. He was sporting a blue swimsuit, which he’s allowed to alter into from his jail apparel through the trial.
He stood with the remainder of the room as the primary panel of 67 potential jurors have been introduced in, however sat down about midway by means of the method. He waved at them from his seat when his attorneys launched them.
The jurors got a prolonged questionnaire meant to display screen out those that should be dismissed. Both the questions and solutions on the varieties are personal, however earlier hearings on its contents revealed that it comprises questions on how a lot media protection of Weinstein they’ve seen, and whether or not they have shaped opinions from it, although the decide rejected questions on particular tales and media retailers.
The prosecution can be allowed to introduce as proof elements of Weinstein’s conviction for rape and sexual assault, the place the state’s highest courtroom has agreed to listen to his attraction.
The questionnaire additionally features a query a couple of California regulation that claims the testimony alone of a sexual assault sufferer may be adequate proof to convict if a juror believes them.
The jurors have been additionally given a protracted checklist of names of witnesses within the coming trial, together with these of the accusers to find out whether or not they have any connection to them. The preliminary witness checklist within the case had greater than 270 names, although fewer than half which can be anticipated. Most of the possible witness checklist has not been made public.
One witness, Barbara Schneeweiss, a producer on “Project Runway” and different tv exhibits, was current in courtroom early Monday and was informed by a decide she was on name to return in at any time.
Two extra panels of as much as 75 jurors can be introduced in Tuesday and Wednesday. Questioning of particular person jurors is just not anticipated to start till subsequent week, and opening statements could not start for 2 weeks.
The trial comes 5 years after ladies’s tales about Weinstein made the .MeToo motion explode.
Weinstein is charged with 4 counts of rape and 7 different sexual assault counts.
Most of the incidents in his indictment, like Newsom’s, occurred underneath the guise of enterprise conferences at luxurious resorts in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters and the place he may very well be seen throughout awards season and all year long. Four of them occurred throughout Oscars week 2013, when Weinstein releases “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained” would win Academy Awards.