Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actor who’s married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, broke down crying Monday at Harvey Weinstein’s intercourse crimes trial, the place she is testifying as one of many disgraced film producer’s accusers.
She wept when prosecutors requested her whether or not she noticed Weinstein within the courtroom.
“He’s carrying a swimsuit and a blue tie, and he’s looking at me,” she mentioned.
Siebel Newsom is understood within the Los Angeles courtroom as “Jane Doe #4,” however she was recognized by her actual identify to NBC Information. (NBC Information doesn’t identify sexual assault victims except they’ve recognized themselves publicly.)
Weinstein is on trial 5 years after The New York Occasions and The New Yorker first printed explosive investigations into allegations of a sample of sexual misconduct. The tales impressed a wider reckoning with abuses of energy in leisure and different high-profile industries.
In an essay for HuffPost printed a day after The New York Occasions ran its first exposé, Siebel Newsom accused Weinstein of “aggressive advances” however didn’t present extra particular particulars.
Weinstein, who as soon as lorded over Hollywood as a strong movie producer earlier than he turned a focus of the #MeToo motion, is charged with 11 counts of rape and sexual assault. He has pleaded not responsible.
He’s already serving a 23-year sentence for a rape conviction in New York, the previous residence of his defunct studio, The Weinstein Firm.
Siebel Newsom advised jurors how she met Weinstein, then testified in graphic and emotional phrases concerning the evening that she says he assaulted her in a lodge suite.
In opening statements, one in all Weinstein’s legal professionals mentioned his consumer’s sexual relationship with Siebel Newsom as consensual.
Siebel Newsom mentioned that she met Weinstein on the Toronto Worldwide Movie Pageant in September 2005, when she was an actor with just a few credit to her identify. She was not in a relationship with Gavin Newsom on the time.
She mentioned that Weinstein approached her and that different folks backed away “just like the Crimson Sea was parting — I don’t know if it was deference or concern.” She mentioned he needed to know who she was and why she was there, recalling that she felt “intimidated” and “flattered.”
Weinstein requested to satisfy along with her later, and he or she agreed partially as a result of she “felt like there was a real curiosity in speaking about my work,” she mentioned.
He requested for her cellphone quantity so they might proceed their dialog in Los Angeles, Siebel Newsom testified, explaining that she “thought that he would attain out sooner or later to speak to me extra about, give me recommendation on work.”
In Los Angeles, Weinstein came visiting to her residence someday to drop off a present: a ebook on the legendary Hollywood mogul Louis B. Mayer. He got here in for round 5 minutes, a quick go to she described as “very awkward.”
Weinstein then invited Siebel Newsom to satisfy along with her on the Peninsula Lodge in Beverly Hills, the place she assumed they might meet on the bar and focus on her profession. As a substitute, Siebel Newsom mentioned she was advised to satisfy Weinstein in a lodge suite.
“I used to be confused. I used to be just a little hesitant,” Siebel Newsom testified.
She mentioned she nervously took the elevator to “this huge, grand suite.” She recalled that she was “uncomfortable,” however “I simply tried to be current and I simply waited.”
Prosecutors requested why she waited. “Since you don’t say no to Harvey Weinstein,” Siebel Newsom mentioned. “He might make or wreck your profession.”
When the producer got here in, he didn’t appear fascinated with discussing her profession, she testified.
“He abruptly obtained up and mentioned I’m going to go get extra snug,” Siebel Newsom mentioned.
He referred to as to her from down the corridor, she testified whereas weeping. She discovered him in his bathrobe. He was touching his penis, then “grabbed” her and “tried to get me to the touch him” she mentioned.
Siebel Newsom mentioned she felt “panicked” and “frozen.”
“I used to be scared. This was not why I got here right here. It was like an entire manipulation of why I used to be there, and I simply remembered bodily making an attempt to again away.”
Siebel Newsom, breaking down in sobs, testified that she pleaded with Weinstein to cease.
He appeared to “soften” in some unspecified time in the future, “like he was making an attempt a special strategy, as a result of I used to be shaking.”
Finally, she mentioned, he both carried or dragged her to the bed room of the suite, the place she mentioned he groped her breasts, touched himself, forcibly eliminated her underwear and assaulted her.
“I’m trembling, I’m like a rock, I’m frigid,” Siebel Newsom testified by sobs. “That is my worst nightmare.”
She mentioned Weinstein raped her. “I used to be afraid of what he was doing, placing his physique into my physique, and hurting me,” she testified.
When the sexual assault was over, she mentioned, she grabbed her issues and left. “It was like ‘The Twilight Zone,’ I simply walked down this hallway [and] it felt like endlessly,” she mentioned.
Prosecutors have accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting 5 ladies in separate incidents from 2004 to 2013. The trial facilities on 4 counts of rape and 7 counts of sexual assault. The ladies will likely be recognized throughout the proceedings as Jane Does 1 by 5.
The trial in Los Angeles took on larger stakes for prosecutors this summer time after the New York State Court docket of Appeals agreed in August to permit Weinstein to attraction his conviction there on a depend of third-degree rape and a depend of first-degree legal sexual act.
If the New York conviction is upheld, Weinstein would serve the remainder of his 23-year sentence. Whether it is overturned, his destiny would hinge on the result of his Los Angeles trial. If he’s convicted in Los Angeles, he might face life in jail in California.
It was unclear whether or not Weinstein’s legal professionals would name him to testify. He’s not being represented by the authorized workforce that ran his protection in New York, the place the trial revolved round allegations from former aspiring actress Jessica Mann and former “Mission Runway” mannequin Mimi Haley.
Within the case of Jane Doe #4, he’s accused of forcible oral copulation and forcible rape from Sept. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, 2005, in line with courtroom paperwork.
Within the Nineteen Nineties and the 2000s, Weinstein and his youthful brother, Bob, have been titans of the film enterprise, producing seminal unbiased movies like “Pulp Fiction” and distributing the Oscar-winning dramas “The English Affected person,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The King’s Speech.”
Weinstein styled himself as a pugnacious kingmaker. He battled with administrators, stormed into enhancing rooms and campaigned for Academy Awards with ruthless zeal. In a city that revolves round huge egos, Weinstein’s towered over the competitors.
His reign got here crashing down in October 2017 after ladies began occurring the report with tales of sexual abuse. In all, greater than 100 ladies have come ahead with allegations stretching again many years.
He has denied all allegations of nonconsensual intercourse.
