Harvey Weinstein’s defense strategy in his Los Angeles sex crimes trial took another interesting turn on Wednesday—this time accusing an Italian model on the stand of lying about the toppled titan’s testicles.
The model, identified as Jane Doe 1, told Los Angeles Superior Court jurors on Wednesday that Weinstein attacked her inside a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2013, where he forced her to give him oral sex, tried to penetrate her vagina with his fingers and penis, and eventually masturbated in the bathroom after having “trouble with an erection.” After the attack, she said that Weinstein “acted like nothing happened” before warning her not to tell anyone about the assault.
“I wanted to die. It was disgusting. It was humiliating, [and] miserable. I didn’t fight,” Jane Doe 1 said. “I remember how he was looking in the mirror and he was telling me to look at him. I wish this never happened to me.”
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But throughout cross-examination, Weinstein’s legal team has sought to poke holes into the harrowing allegations—even if that meant talking about the former producer’s testicles in open court. Defense attorney Alan Jackson revealed Wednesday that by the time of the alleged incident, Weinstein’s testicles had been surgically relocated to his inner thighs.
The physical abnormality, Jackson asked Jane Doe 1, would make it difficult for her to allegedly comply with Weinstein’s demand “to play with his balls.” According to her 2017 interview with authorities, the defense lawyer added, she had put Weinstein’s testicles in her mouth.
“I was trying to do what he wanted,” she said, alluding to her previous testimony where she said she was terrified of Weinstein after he turned aggressive that evening.
Jane Doe 1 also noted that Weinstein had “problems with testicles” but insisted she never changed her story about the assault.
“I described that he had a problem that it wasn’t the testicles but it was a part of him,” she added
Jackson, however, asked why she told police about Weinstein’s testicles—but not the grand jury. He also asked if she had “changed her story” after she had learned that Weinstein “did not have any testicles in his scrotum” after his 1999 surgery between her initial police interview and her grand jury testimony.
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein (L) interacts with his attorney Mark Werksman in court.
POOLProsecutors took the time on re-direct Wednesday afternoon to question Jane Doe 1 again on Weinstein’s physique.
“Under his stomach, belly, he have a very scarring tissue. It doesn’t look like from surgery it’s not straight scars it is kind of messed up and very bad scarring tissue,” she said, later adding that she did not know about Weinstein’s testicles until his lawyer mentioned it. “He’s circumcised. He had area like with empty skin and it was like or he have just one testicles or it just going, ’cause he was adjusting with his hand, it’s like discomfort, its like probably like his testicles coming up or he didn’t have a testicle.”
As she continued to describe his genitals, Weinstein put a hand over his forehead, looking annoyed.
The model was the first to testify against Weinstein in his second sex-crimes trial. Weinstein, 70, has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including rape, after allegedly assaulting five women in Los Angeles between 2003 and 2014. At least eight women are expected to testify against Weinstein, who was convicted of similar crimes in New York and is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence.
Prosecutors argued this week that Weinstein used his power in Hollywood to lure and sexually abuse women under the guise of career development. He used that same power, prosecutors said, to ensure these women stayed silent about the alleged assaults. To prove this pattern of behavior, prosecutors warned jurors they would hear details—and pictures—about Weinstein’s scarred genitalia from several women who describe “unique things about his body” after his surgery.
“That surgery caused pretty noticeable scarring, and you’ll see the pictures,” Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson said on Monday. “Because of an infection, his testicles were actually taken from his scrotum and put into his inner thighs.”
Weinstein’s defense team, however, insisted to jurors that the women taking the stand are liars who knowingly engaged in “transactional sex” with the once-famous producer. Mark Werksman, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, went so far insist that Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is set to testify in this case, would “be just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood” if she wasn’t married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
But on Wednesday, jurors continued to hear Jane Doe 1’s allegations, which she said began after Weinstein unexpectedly showed up at her hotel room in February 2013. She said that after Weinstein offered her a massage, she was “kind of hysterical through tears” when he eventually forced her mouth toward his penis.
“I was panicking with fear,” she added, noting that Weinstein continued the assault even though he was not always fully erect. The model said she was asked by Weinstein to stop but kept moving during the assault so he could not “get inside” of her.
“I was afraid for my life, I was afraid for my kids. I was afraid for my reputation,” she added.
