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A former production assistant on “Project Runway” testified through tears Wednesday about how Harvey Weinstein sexually assaulted at his SoHo apartment, recounting how she futilely tried to push him away and he completely ignored her protests.
“I realized that I’m getting raped,” Miriam “Mimi” Haley, 48, said was going through her mind during the alleged 2006 attack.
“The unthinkable was happening … I didn’t know when it was ending,” she told jurors at Weinstein’s retrial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Haley was about 29 when she claims the then-Miramax movie studio boss had a driver pick her up from her apartment and take him to his pad — where he allegedly almost immediately “lunged at” her, trying to kiss her as they sat on his sofa.
The former TV production assistant — who also testified at Weinstein’s 2020 Manhattan rape trial — told the court in graphic detail about the disturbing July 10, 2006 assault that left her “mortified” and “in disbelief.”
“I rejected him and he kept persisting, trying to kiss me.” Haley said.
The then-110-pound Haley futilely attempted to “push him away,” but the much-larger Weinstein wouldn’t relent and eventually grabbed her, forcing her into a “dark bedroom,” she testified.
“I was trying to get him off of me. I was trying to push him away from me. I was trying to get him to stop kissing me and grabbing me,” she described, before she began crying.
Haley said Weinstein pinned her on the bed and fumbled with her clothes eventually taking her underwear off.
“I couldn’t get away from his grip,” she told jurors.
Haley told Weinstein that she was on her period and had a tampon in, but undeterred, he “yanked it out,” she testified.
He then “forcefully” performed oral sex on her, she alleged.
“I don’t remember all that much from the moment,” she said. “I decided to check out.”
Haley said she made a calculated decision to let the encounter play out, deciding to “check out and endure it” after realizing she wouldn’t be able to fight him off.
“I was mortified. I was embarrassed. I was in disbelief,” she told the jury.
The next thing she remembered was “coming out of there and into the street,” Haley described.
She took a taxi home and eventually told her roommate what had happened later that night.
Haley said she thought about going to the police but ended up deciding against it.
“My thoughts were that this person was very powerful in the entertainment industry and I risked having both the industry and the media turn against me and call me various things,” she said.
“I did kind of suppress it,” Haley said. “I found a way to kind of almost suppress, put it away and carry on like it almost didn’t happen although it bugged me in the back of my mind forever.”
Haley said a little over a month later Weinstein “convinced” her to meet him again on July 26, 2006 at the TriBeCa Grant Hotel.
She says when she arrived in the room Weinstein immediately “pulled” her onto the bed.
“Oh no, on no — not again,” she recalled thinking. “In that moment, I just felt so stupid.”
She said she went “numb” and laid there “like a dead fish.”
Weinstein allegedly called her “b—h” and “whore” which made her feel “very, very small,” she testified, as she teared up again.
She said that Weinstein had sexual intercourse with her without a condom and told her “don’t worry — I can’t have kids.”
On her way out, Haley said: “You know — you can’t keep doing this. I said that to him.”
She testified that Weinstein looked unaffected by her comment.
“He just looked at me, like. whatever,” she said.
Haley, a Finish native, said she encountered Weinstein a few times prior to the alleged assault, including once at the Cannes Film Festival in France the month before where he allegedly asked her for a massage. She rebuffed that advance.
It was her second day on the stand at Weinstein’s retrial that began last week — and her second time testifying against him in criminal court.
He was sentenced to 23 years behind bars in that case.
But the initial guilty verdict was overturned last year by New York’s highest court that found the trial judge made a bad call in allowing three women to testified about their alleged sexual assaults despite their claims not being apart of the charges against Weinstein.
Weinstein — who has been accused by 80 women of sexual assaults and misconduct — faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted at the retrial on the top count.
Jurors are also expected to hear testimony from former actress Jessica Mann who claims he raped her twice in 2013 — once in Manhattan and once in Los Angeles.
He was separately convicted in California of raping an Italian model at a film festival in Italy in 2013. He was sentenced to 16 years in that case — which he is appealing.
He’s maintained his innocence.
English (US)