Warning: the story below includes graphic descriptions of sexual assault.
Harvey Weinstein’s California trial – his second criminal trial on sexual misconduct charges – is now in its second week.
The former Hollywood producer is facing 11 counts (four counts of rape and seven counts of sexual assault) involving five women in Los Angeles
He was extradited for the proceedings from New York, where he was convicted in 2020 on charges of criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape. He has been serving a 23-year prison sentence in the New York case.
Weinstein has denied all allegations of non-consensual sex. He had pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles and is appealing his New York conviction.
Both trials are the continuation of a series of allegations made against Weinstein that came to light in October 2017 with two articles published in The New York Times and The New Yorker, respectively.
Here is everything that has happened in Weinstein’s LA trial so far:
Jury selection
Jury selection took place over the course of two weeks prior to opening arguments, which began on 24 October.
Nine men and three women were selected as jurors. Eight alternate jurors have also been picked. They are sitting in on the proceedings and will step in if one the main jurors needs to be dismissed at any point during the trial.
According to the Associated Press, the seated jurors were among those who had asked few questions during the selection process.
Their ages “appeared to range mostly between 40 and 70”, the news agency reported, noting that “a few appeared to be older than that, and one man appeared to be in his early- to mid- 20s”, and that “of the three women, two are older adults and one appeared to be about 30.”
Opening arguments
Opening statements began on 24 October.
Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson delivered the prosecution’s statement, painting Weinstein as “the most powerful man in Hollywood”, who took advantage of his status to intimidate women.
Mr Thompson said several women would deliver similar testimony, telling the jury: “Each of these women came forward independent of each other, and none of them knew one another.”
The prosecution’s opening statement included a video presentation featuring photos of the women who would testify. Most of them were aspiring actors, according to The AP, and one was an aspiring screenwriter.
Speaking for the defense, Weinstein’s attorney Mark Werksman contended that Weintein’s act were considered normal, “transactional” behaviour in Hollywood, telling jurors: “You’ll learn that in Hollywood, sex was a commodity.”
In a strategy reminiscent of Weinstein’s New York trial, Mr Werksman told the jury that several women kept in contact with Weinstein after the alleged assaults. In his own statement, Mr Thompson told jurors they would hear testimongy from a psychologist seeking to dispel myths about sexual assault, including the erroneous idea that a victim would not keep in touch with an abuser.
First woman testifies
Testimony began on 24 October. The first woman to speak was a model and actor who alleged that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex after the two met at a film festival in 2013 in LA. She alleged that Weinstein knocked at the door of her hotel room before the alleged assault.
“I was crying, choking,” she told the court.
The woman, who has not been identified publicly, was pressed by Weinstein’s defense team about what they viewed as a lack of evidence to back up her allegations. Weinstein attorney Alan Jackson, among other things, asked her why she hadn’t complained to hotel staff.
“Because of what happened to me. Because I didn’t want anybody to know,” the woman said.
Her testimony stretched from Monday 24 October into Wednesday 26 October.
Second woman testifies
On Thursday 27 October, a second woman testified, alleging that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2003, when she was 22 years old and working as a dancing double for the film Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights, which was produced by Miramax, Weinstein’s company.
She alleged that she had misgivings about going to Weinstein’s hotel room to discuss professional projects, but felt pressured to do so and reassured by the presence of his assistant. However, she alleged that once Weinstein was left alone with her, he “quickly became aggressive, pushing her on to the bed and taking her top off before straddling her and masturbating while on top of her, despite her telling him to stop”, The Associated Press reported.
During cross-examination, Mr Werksman, Weinstein’s attorney, “repeatedly challenged a woman over why she didn’t raise more objections or leave the hotel room”, and asked her what she was wearing during the alleged assault, according to The AP.
The woman is not one of the five whose allegations make up the charges against Weinstein in the LA trial. Rather, her testimony was presented to represent what the prosecution has described as Weinstein’s propensity to commit such acts. Three other witnesses are in that same category.
The woman’s testimony took place between Thursday 27 October and Friday 28 October. On Friday, jurors were also shown images of Weinstein’s body, so that they could decide whether the pictures were consistent with testimony.
Third woman testifies
Testimony resumed on Monday 31 October, when a woman publicly identified as Kelly Sipherd alleged that Weinstein sexually assaulted her twice: the first time, in a hotel room during the 1991 Toronto Film Festival, and the second time, 17 years later, when she attempted to confront him after running into him by chance at the same location.
She alleged she was 24 and an aspiring actor when she met Weinstein, who “said he had a script for a film with a role that would be perfect for her” in his hotel room, The AP reported.
There, Ms Sipherd alleged that Weinstein “held her down and sexually assaulted her with his mouth and his hand”, then “climbed on top of her and started to rape her but she was able to slip away and leave the room”, according to the news agency.
When she ran into Weinstein in 2008 at the same hotel, she said her “blood kind of stopped” and she “was very angry”. Weinstein’s assistant allegedly told her he wanted to meet up with her. Sipherd said she agreed, ad that she “wanted to confront him.”
Once in the room, Ms Sipherd alleged that Weinstein dismissed his assistant and quickly guided Sipherd into a closed bathroom, where he allegedly “grabbed her breasts and masturbated in front of her before letting her leave the room”, The AP reported.
Ms Sipherd is another one of the witnesses whose claims do not reflect the charges against Weinstein, and whose testimony has been included by the prosecution in an effort to show an alleged pattern of behaviour on Weinstein’s part.
During cross-examination, Mr Jackson, Weinstein’s attorney, questioned by Sipherd spoke with Weinstein on the phone after the first alleged assault. About the second assault, he asked why Sipherd didn’t leave, scream, or tell anyone.
“You find yourself for the second time alone with this rapist and you didn’t scream?” he asked, according to The AP.
“I was mortified and in shock,” Sipherd replied.
She explained she kept silent about the second alleged assault due to the “sheer embarrassment” she felt.
“I was in shock,” she said. “So embarrassed, just so embarrassed.”
Weinstein’s LA trial is expected to last for a total of six weeks.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this story
