The prosecution called 44 witnesses to the stand to gather their arguments against Harvey Weinsteinbut the jury’s decision in the Los Angeles trial will depend largely on the testimony of four women who accuse him of raping or sexually assaulting them and are known in court simply as “Jane Doe.”
Four other women testified as part of the prosecution’s attempt to demonstrate a role model of the former film entrepreneur, who pleaded not guilty. Associated press does not identify individuals who claim to have been sexually abused unless they have made their allegations publicly or have agreed, through their attorneys, to be identified, as was the case with the women identified herein in whole or in part.
A look at the eight women accusing Weinstein:
The “Jane Does”
JANE DOE 1: She is an actress of Russian origin, residing in Italy, who was the first witness at the trial. She testified that when she went to a film festival in Los Angeles in February 2013, Weinstein was not invited to her hotel room and raped her. She says her attack left her mentally traumatized and led to an alcohol addiction.
YOUNG LAUREN: Known in court as Jane Doe 2, Young is the only accuser to testify in Weinstein’s trials in Los Angeles and New York. Young, then a model trying to make it big in acting and screenwriting, says that in a meeting with Weinstein about a script, she caught her in the bathroom of her hotel in Beverly HillsHe groped her and masturbated in front of her while she was paralyzed with fear. That was the day after the alleged rape of Jane Doe 1 in 2013.
JANE DOE 3: Weinstein hired her to give him a massage in May 2010 when, as Young reported, he caught her in a hotel bathroom, groped her and masturbated in front of her. She has expressed shame and disgust that she agreed to massage Weinstein again, a point echoed by other witnesses and emphasized by the defense during trials.
JENNIFER SIEBEL NEWS: His testimony is the most awaited and the most dramatic of the trial. Documentary filmmaker and wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and known in court as Jane Doe 4, gave a very emotional account of what she described as Weinstein’s rape.
It was September 2005, in a Beverly Hills hotel during a meeting that was supposed to relate to the acting career she was trying to start. With tears in her eyes, she practically screamed as she testified, to the astonishment and silence of those present.
The other complainants
Kelly Sipherd: His account spanned 17 years. She testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a hotel room during the Toronto Film Festival when she was an aspiring actress in 1991, and again when she went to confront him in the same hotel at the same cinema, in 2008.
AMBER BATTILANA GUTIERREZ: Italian-Filipino model. She said that in 2015, Weinstein groped her breasts during a meeting in New York City. She was a celebrated figure in the #MeToo anti-sexual harassment movement two years later, when the magazine The New Yorker reported that Weinstein paid him a million dollars for his silence.
The prosecution at the time declined to press charges against Weinstein, a decision that prompted criticism and a re-evaluation of the case. Gutierrez testified about the encounter and its aftermath and at the Los Angeles trial presented a tape of Weinstein which he made at the request of the NYPD.
NATASSIA MALTHE: A Norwegian model who gave similar testimony to Jane Doe 1 that Weinstein came uninvited to her London hotel room and raped her after an awards ceremony. Weinstein’s lawyers, as they have for other accusers, have argued that the discrepancies in their accounts, their subsequent contact with Weinstein, and what they called mixed signals about his consent imply that there was no sexual assault.
ASHLEY MATTHAU: A 21-year-old dancer who starred in Weinstein’s film Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. She said Weinstein fabricated an excuse to take her off the set and into her hotel in Puerto Rico and masturbate on top of her in 2003. Weinstein’s lawyers say Weinstein’s sexual intentions were obvious and he had the opportunity to Leave. She claims fear and the power imbalance between the two prevented her from doing so.
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Source: Clarin
