Harvey Weinstein accuser testifies ‘safest thing ... was to check out, endure it' during 2006 sex assault
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein accuser Miriam Haley told a Manhattan jury disturbing details of how the hulking film mogul sexually assaulted her in his Soho loft, and how she calculated the safest thing she could do was to 'check out' and endure the attack.
In her second day of testimony in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, the 48-year-old former TV producer cried as she walked jurors through the 2006 alleged attack, and a second unwanted sexual encounter two weeks later.
'I couldn't get away from his grip. I couldn't get away from him. And I realized I'm getting raped, that's what was happening,' Haley said of the alleged July 10, 2006, assault in Weinsten's loft, where she says he yanked out her tampon and forcibly performed oral sex on her.
'That was my brain calculating: What's the safest thing for me to do right now? So in the end, I just decided to check out and just endure it,' she said.
Haley also told her story in 2020, at a trial that ended in the Miramax Films co-founder's conviction on first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape charges.
But the state's highest court overturned that conviction in April 2024, ruling that the trial judge shouldn't have allowed testimony from women accusing him of sexual assaults not covered by the charges against him.
The retrial covers separate allegations by Haley and aspiring actress Jessica Mann, as well as new allegations by a third woman, Polish model Kaja Sokola. He has pleaded not guilty.
Haley on Tuesday testified about how she met Weinstein, and of a series of encounters, some 'very pleasant' and respectful, and others where things took a dark turn, with the mogul asking for a massage or pushing his way into her apartment as he insisted she travel with him to Paris.
The July 10, 2006, encounter happened a day before Haley was supposed to travel to Los Angeles on Weinstein's dime to attend the 'Clerks 2' movie premiere. She would up taking the trip, but not going to the screening.
Haley said she made it clear to Weinstein that she had no sexual or romantic interest in him throughout their encounters, and that she was looking for work.
Weinstein asked her to drop by his apartment before the L.A. trip, and she agreed, she said. 'It would have been odd to say no.'
His driver picked her up and took her there, and at first, they talked on his sofa, about two or three feet apart, as a TV showed a comedy program, she testified. Then he lunged toward her and tried to kiss her, and when she got off the sofa he got up and grabbed her, pushing her backward into another room and onto a bed.
'I'm trying to get him off me, and I'm saying no, no it's not gonna happen, no. I told him that I'm on my period, it's not gonna happen, and he didn't listen. Every time I tried to get up he pushed me back onto the bed,' she said.
At that point, Haley said she was running through possibilities in her head — would she be able to get to the elevator and out of the building, would Weinstein knock her unconscious if she physically struggled, was his driver standing guard outside — and again decided 'the smartest thing to do was the safest thing to do, to check out, endure it, have it over with and leave.'
After the attack she weighed a new set of options — whether to call the police or the media — but felt that because she was working on 'Project Runway' in New York without a work visa, she'd face consequences while Weinstein would use his power and money to turn the tables, said Haley, who was born in Finland and lived in London.
A little over two weeks later, on July 26, Haley agreed to meet Weinstein again, in his room at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, hoping to regain some sense of control in the process, she said.
Instead of meeting in the lobby, though, he summoned her to his room and 'as soon as he opened the door,' he pulled her inside and to the bed, she said.
'I was just like, 'No, not again.' And he basically just proceeded to undress me. I didn't even remember,' she said. 'At that moment I felt stupid. I just went numb. He proceeded to have intercourse with me and I just laid there like a dead fish.'
He called her 'bitch' and 'whore,' she testified.
'I was basically just lying there motionless, more or less, just waiting for it to be over. I did blame myself that time. Because I didn't physically resist, because I had been stupid enough to show up,' she said.
Even so, she said, she maintained contact with Weinstein in the weeks to follow. 'I was desperate for work,' she said. 'I was trying to make this situation work in the best possible way for me.'
She was also embarrassed that he 'thought so little of me,' she said, explaining, 'I wanted people to think that I had a good connection with this powerful guy.'
Her testimony continues Wednesday afternoon.
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