Jane Doe Testimony in Harvey Weinstein Trial Somehow Gets More Horrific

“Everything happened so fast,” Jane Doe #2 told a Los Angeles courtroom this week. “I was in so much shock…I just wanted to get out of there as soon as possible.” Some variation of this sentence has already been uttered countless times in Harvey Weinstein’s second sex abuse trial. Given four weeks remain in the trial, we’re due to hear it on a dozen more occasions.

This week, Jane Doe #2, an aspiring actress and playwright, and a “prior bad act witness” took center stage, with both detailing upsetting encounters with the disgraced Hollywood producer. Doe #2, who also testified in Weinstein’s New York trial in 2020, began the week by telling the court she met Weinstein at the Montage hotel in Los Angeles under the guise of pitching a script. At the time, she was working as a model, but wanted to break into film and sought Weinstein’s help with a script she’d written. Her friend, Claudia Salinas, was working as Weinstein’s personal assistant and organized the meeting—which was supposed to take place in the lobby—on her behalf. However, when Doe #2 showed up, Salinas asked her to go upstairs. She believed the meeting would be professional, she told the court, until Salinas swiftly ushered her into Weinstein’s hotel suite and shut the door.

“This was a girl I thought was my new friend…I just couldn’t believe she would do that to me. Another girl,” Doe #2 said. Once in the room, Weinstein, she remembered, abruptly trapped her and removed his clothes. As heard in previous Jane Doe testimony, Weinstein then began to masturbate and grab at Doe #2, shoving his hands under her dress. “I was disgusted,” she told the jury. “I had never seen a big guy like that naked.”

“I wanted to run, but I didn’t think I could,” Doe #2 added. “I couldn’t fathom what was happening to me.” She then told the court how she attempted to move away from Weinstein, but he continued to grab at her and unzip her dress. “He said, ‘It’s okay, we’re just going to talk,’” intimating that other actresses had participated in similar instances, and “this is how I know you can act.”

“He was grabbing my breasts and jerking off and squinting at me with this look,” she continued, reportedly becoming emotional. “He was just masturbating and groping me…I was in complete shock…I was really grossed out by his body and the look he was giving me.”

Once again, Doe #2 was asked to describe Weinstein’s deformed genitalia for the court. “His penis was so disgusting,” Doe #2 said. “It looked like it had been chopped off and sewn back on…I didn’t see a full sack…I literally just saw a penis.” She continued, “I wasn’t trying to look at it, but it was something I hadn’t seen before.”

Despite her repeated pleas for him to stop, Weinstein finished, ejaculating onto a towel in the bathroom. When he let her go, she recalled giving Salinas, who was waiting outside the door, “an evil look,” as she felt betrayed by her friend. She never saw Weinstein again, and it wouldn’t be until 2018—five years after the assault—that she called a hotline and reported it to police. “At that point, other people were coming out and I felt safe to do so,” Doe #2 explained. “I wanted to prevent it from happening to anyone else.”

During cross-examination, Alan Jackson, Weinstein’s attorney insinuated Doe #2’s story had changed. “It was traumatic and it’s a memory that I have that I wish never happened,” she responded. “There are parts I will never be able to forget.”

“I know that’s your story,” Jackson replied, to which Doe #2 answered, “It’s not a story. It’s what happened to me.” Weinstein, per Variety, shook his head. Jackson also questioned whether or not she was actually locked in the bathroom with Weinstein at all. “You felt that you were locked in there, but you were not locked in there,” he said. “You felt that you were being sexually assaulted, but you were not.”

“I was definitely sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein,” Doe #2 asserted. Jackson, as he has in all other cross-examination, attempted to sow further doubt by wondering why it took years for Doe #2 to come forward. She replied that she feared a wide range of retribution. “You believed he would murder you?” Jackson inquired. “I didn’t know what he was capable of,” she replied.

More testimony took place on Tuesday, with a witness identified as Ambra B., a model whose police report prompted New York state prosecutors to investigate Weinstein in 2015, telling the court how she immediately went to the police after he groped her breasts and attempted to kiss her during a casting in 2015. While at the station, law enforcement officers instructed her to call Weinstein and record it. Jurors listened to the recorded audio (published by the New Yorker in 2017), wherein Weinstein can be heard telling her that her breasts “feel beautiful” and offering to be her “mentor.” Weinstein also invited her to meet him for a drink the following day, which officers instructed her to do while wearing a wire.

“If you want to spend time with me, I will mentor you,” Weinstein told her as they had coffee in the lobby of his hotel. “You’re more beautiful than Adriana Lima…you’re amazing,” he continued. At one point, according to the audio heard in court, Weinstein abruptly invited her to his room. “Let’s go,” he said. Ambra B. told the court she expressed discomfort with going to his room for fear things would turn sexual. “We won’t do that…we’ll do other things, but not that.” Weinstein, she said, suggested a massage to which she replied that she didn’t want to. “Okay, we’ll see,” he said. She then followed him to his room, knowing police were on site, but expressed discomfort again while in the elevator with other people.

“Don’t ruin your friendship with me for five minutes,” Weinstein warned. At another point, when she suggested leaving, he told her, “If you do this now, never call me again,” and “You will lose big opportunities.” Upon reaching the floor on which Weinstein’s room was located, Ambra B. said she realized law enforcement officers hadn’t followed them and she was then afraid enough to say no to Weinstein. “I really didn’t want to get into the room,” she told the court. Ultimately, she left and met with a police officer waiting in a bathroom downstairs.

“The underlying incident that all this is about is that Mr. Weinstein touched your breast one time—for one second?” Jackson prompted Ambra B. during cross-examination. “I don’t know if it was one second,” she replied. “It felt a lot longer. It felt like an eternity.”

Later that day, actress Daphne Zuniga, testified on behalf of friend and alleged survivor, Jennifer Siebel Newsom aka Jane Doe #4. Newsom, who’s currently married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), alleged Weinstein raped her. Zuniga told jurors that Newsom had told her she had a business meeting with Weinstein in 2005. When Zuniga inquired how the meeting went, she allegedly responded that she didn’t want to discuss it. She also noted that her friend became “upset” and “agitated.” More than 15 years later, Newsom contacted Zuniga to make her aware that she was part of Weinstein’s case and that she would be contacted by detectives.

Newsom is set to testify in the trial in the coming weeks.