Prosecutors who open the trial of Hollywood Harvey Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault described Wednesday how he ignored the pleas of their victims to stop and abuse their position to make them “feel small.”
The trial, which began with the jury selection last week, will force the survivors who helped provoke the “Metao” movement to testify against Weinstein once again.
The former Miramax Studio chief is accused of the 2006 sexual assault of former production assistant Mimi Haleyi and the violation of the candidate for the candidate for the candidate for the candidate for the candidate for the candidate for the candidate A. It also faces a new count for alleged sexual assault of a 16 -year -old in 2006.
The Assistant District Prosecutor Shannon Lucey told Weinstein’s alleged attacks in graphic detail, saying that the three women had begged him to stop, but that he had “all the power … made all these women feel small.”
The prosecutor described how Weinstein bothered Haleyi with multiple requests for massage and sexual favors before meeting him in an apartment one day in 2006.
“The defendant, three times [her] size, kissed her, touched her to grades, and she told her again that she wasn’t interested, “Lucey said.” He pulled Mimi towards him … He quickly realized that he was not going to go [to] Take a not by response, ”added the prosecutor.
Lucey detailed how Weinstein forced Haleyi to himself, interpreting oral sex in her despite her pleas to stop.
The award -winning film producer, who was taken to the Criminal Court of Manhattan in a wheelchair and carried a dark business demand, occasionally looked at the jury when the trial began.
Lucey described the accused as “one of the most powerful men in … show business”, telling the female majority jury that “when he wanted something, he took it.”
More than 80 accusers
Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the previous trial, was an aspiring model and only 16 years at that time that heinstein sexually assaulted her at a hotel in Manhattan.
The accusers describe the entrepreneur as a predator who used his hanger on the film industry to press actresses and assistants for sexual favors, often in hotel rooms.
But Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s defense lawyer emphasized that the prosecutor’s opening declaration was not “the entire film”, arguing that the jury would not hear evidence of the use of force or lack of consent.
He said that Mann had introduced Weinstein to his mother after the alleged rape, and that Haleyi had “consensual sex” with Weinstein after his alleged attack.
“Not guilty, not guilty, not guilty,” he told the jury.
Weinstein’s 2020 sentences over Haleyi and Mann were revoked last year by the New York Court of Appeals, which ruled that the way in which witnesses were handled in the original New York trial was illegal.
It is expected that the presentation of the evidence in the new trial will last for five to six weeks. The 73 -year -old has said that he hopes his case will be tried with “fresh eyes”, more than seven years after his spectacular fall and a global reaction against predatory abusers.
Weinstein is already serving a prison sentence of 16 years after being convicted of violating and assaulting a European actress more than a decade ago.
The producer of a box office success chain such as Sex, lies and video tapes, Pulp fiction and Shakespeare in LoveWeinstein has fought against health problems. He has never recognized any irregularity and has always maintained that the meetings were consensual.
Since his fall, Weinstein has been accused of harassment, sexual assault or rape by more than 80 women, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong’o and Ashley Judd.
