Los Angeles
CNN
—
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, filmmaker and wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, became spokesperson Harvey Weinstein sexual assault trial In Los Angeles on Monday, he occasionally broke down in tears while claiming he raped her in a hotel room in 2005.
Weinstein was acquitted of multiple sexual assault charges, including four counts of rape, four counts of forced oral copulation, forced sexual penetration, and sexual assault by restraint in cases between 2004 and 2013. claims.
Siebel Newsom was being cross-examined by his defense team when the judge stopped proceedings for the day. She will resume her testimony on Tuesday morning.
Siebel Newsom, the fourth accuser to testify, said he was “a little nervous” and became emotional shortly after taking the stand.
Asked by prosecutor Marlene Martinez if she would be able to meet Weinstein in court on Monday, Siebel Newsom burst into tears and said “yes” into the microphone with a trembling voice.
“He’s wearing a suit and a blue tie and he’s staring at me,” she said.
She told the court in 2005, at the age of 31, that she met the media mogul while in a bar with other industry friends during the Toronto Film Festival. Coming towards me, I felt like everyone was retreating,” she recalled, adding, “It felt like the Red Sea was parting.”
He then introduced himself to her, and she testified that he had a meeting and asked her to meet later to continue the conversation.
“I felt I had to go see him…maybe he could give me some good advice..I thought he was really interested in telling me about my job. at the hotel bar.
Weinstein was “really focused on telling me I was special,” Siebel Newsom told the court, and Weinstein told her he wanted to stay and talk a little more, but was on a flight to New York. I had to ride.
At the end of September 2005, Weinstein contacted me when he was in Los Angeles and she said she lived in the West Hollywood area. He stopped by a party she was having for her five minutes and said: We can talk about your film project. ”
He phoned her and invited her to a hotel, where an assistant told her the meeting would be held in Weinstein’s suite, she testified. She told the court that she told everyone there to leave.
She explained that Weinstein wasn’t interested in hearing about her project.
According to her testimony, Weinstein walked down the hall in his robe and crouched. “Can I help you?” she says he asked.
“Then I saw him touching himself and he grabbed me,” she told the jury, who began to cry.
He was aggressive and she tried to back off, she said.
Weinstein softened his approach, she testified, but eventually he carried or dragged her into her bedroom and raped her.
When asked by prosecutors why she was staying in a hotel suite, she said: He can make or ruin your career. I thought we were going to discuss my project. ”
Siebel Newsom said he didn’t speak to anyone that night and didn’t call the police.
“I was raped so badly, I don’t know how it happened,” she said through tears. “I didn’t see any clues, and I didn’t know how to escape.”
Defense attorney Mark Werksman said in his opening statement on Oct. 24 that Siebel Newsom had consensual sex with Weinstein.
He took special aim at her and used vulgar language to attack her credibility.
“She became a prominent victim of the #MeToo movement…otherwise she would have been just a slut who slept with Harvey Weinstein to make it in Hollywood,” Works said. Mann said.
It focused on whether the state governor, who married Siebel Newsom in 2008, was aware of the alleged rape at the time she received campaign funds from Weinstein. Newsom said he returned the funds “immediately” in October 2017 after realizing something had happened.
“I told him Harvey was sketchy at various times, but he figured it out himself when he met him,” she testified.
According to court documents, Weinstein was charged with forced oral sex and forced rape of Jane Doe 4 from September 1, 2004 to September 30, 2005. Jane Doe 4 has been identified as her Siebel Newsom.
Siebel Newsom is a Stanford University alumnus who has written, directed and produced several documentaries including “Miss Representation”, “The Mask You Live In” and “The Great American Lie”. Her first partner in California, Siebel Newsom, has launched an initiative focused on championing her working mother and closing the gender pay gap.
Court in California 2017 New York Times and New Yorker revealed Weinstein’s alleged history of sexual abuse, harassment, and secret settlements as he used his influence as a Hollywood power broker to take advantage of young women.
Weinstein is 2020 New York Conviction He was found guilty of first-degree sex crimes and third-degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison. He has pleaded not guilty, and the New York Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal in the case in August.