Rape, forced oral sex, solicitation of triplets and false promises: Hollywood producer's trial is underway and shocking evidence accumulates

• Harvey Weinstein

  Photo:

  AFP

"Make a threesome with me. That's how it works in the industry": At the beginning of the month, almost ironically the morning after the Golden Globe ceremony, Harvey Weinstein's Manhattan trial opened.

Weinstein (67), once a prominent and influential Hollywood producer and today is charged with dozens of sexually assaulting and grievous sexual assault cases that the entertainment industry has known in recent decades, has faced trial and now has to face off against a small portion of women who allegedly attacked over the years.

Concurrent with the denial of two New York women's assaults, another indictment was filed against Weinstein in Los Angeles for the rape and sexual assault of another woman in 2013.

The allegations against Weinstein first surfaced in the New York Times and New Yorker magazine in October 2017. A few days later, he was expelled from the American Film Academy.

Actress Alyssa Milano then tweeted on Twitter: "If you've ever been harassed, or sexually assaulted," I, too, wrote, "and actually started the metoo # movement.

Following the line of public accusations against Weinstein, women around the world have begun to post numerous allegations of sexual assault or harassment by powerful men in the business, politics, media and entertainment industries.

Now, as stated, as his trial began, detailed testimony from his victims began to be heard. Don Denning and Tarrell Wolf, two of the witnesses, encountered Weinstein in the 2000s when they were actresses early on and worked as waitresses. Both women claimed that Weinstein promised to help them in their acting careers and persuaded them to meet him for "business purposes", but once they were alone with him sexually assaulted them.

Denning testified that he tried to convince her to a trio with him and one of his assistants "because that's how it works in the industry." Wolf's claims are even more serious when Weinstein testified that she raped her in his Manhattan loft, forcing her onto the bed, forcing him on it and throwing at her: "Don't worry, I had surgery to cut the sperm tube."

A production assistant named Mimi Haley claimed that forced sex on her and an actress named Jessica Mann claimed to have raped her in 2006. Another actress named Annabella Review ("The Sopranos") testified that Weinstein raped her sometime between 1993-1994.
Since his case for headlines, Weinstein has been charged with more than 80 sex crimes, with many of them being subject to the statute of limitations. Weinstein denies all charges and insists that all acts were consensual.

Despite this, and despite trying to win the mercy of the jury and the public by showing an image of an old and weak man using a treadmill on his way to court, if convicted, he is facing life imprisonment and could end his life behind bars. Even if convicted of criminal charges, he could find himself facing a series of civil lawsuits.

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