NEW YORK — A woman who alleges Harvey Weinstein forced oral sex on her nearly two decades ago broke down in tears on the witness stand at his #MeToo retrial on Friday, raising her voice and cursing as the former Hollywood mogul’s lawyer questioned her account of the alleged assault.
“He was the one who raped me, not the other way around,” Miriam Haley told jurors.
“That is for the jury to decide,” Weinstein lawyer Jennifer Bonjean responded.
“No, it’s not for the jury to decide,” Haley said, her voice growing louder as tears began streaming down her face. “It’s my experience. And he did that to me.”
Judge Curtis Farber promptly halted questioning and sent jurors out of the courtroom for a short break. Haley, her eyes red and face glistening, did not look at Weinstein as she left the witness stand and exited through a side door.
Haley, 48, is testifying for a fourth day at Weinstein’s rape trial. Questioning resumed after the break.
Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first of three accusers expected to testify at the retrial, which is happening after an appeals court overturned his conviction at his first trial in 2020. Haley’s testimony at that trial took just one day.
Haley alleges that Weinstein assaulted her in July 2006 after inviting her to his apartment to, as she put it, “just stop by and say hi.”
She testified earlier in the week that Weinstein backed her into a bedroom and pushed her onto a bed, holding her down as he ignored her pleas of: “No, no — it’s not going to happen.”
Haley and two of her friends testified that she told them soon after that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her. She maintains she was never interested in any sexual or romantic relationship with Weinstein, despite his past overtures, but wanted his help getting jobs in show business.
Zeroing in on the alleged assault, Bonjean on Friday questioned why Haley would agree to go to Weinstein’s apartment after what the witness described as previous “bizarre” and “overwhelming” behavior, including his barging into her home weeks earlier as he sought to persuade her to go to Paris with him.
Haley said she didn’t have a reason to turn down Weinstein’s request to stop by his apartment and said she didn’t fear for her safety, even after his earlier outburst.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” she testified. “I go to people’s houses all the time.”
Haley broke down as Bonjean asked her about the clothing she wore to the apartment. She wasn’t certain what clothing she was wearing, but maintained that Weinstein was the one who took them off. The witness has said that Weinstein also removed her tampon before forcibly performing oral sex on her.
“I didn’t take my clothing off,” Haley said, before asserting that Weinstein raped her.
Bonjean objected, arguing that determining whether Weinstein assaulted Haley is a legal conclusion that only the jury can make.
That set Haley off. The witness, who has sparred with Bonjean during two days of cross-examination, fired back that regardless of the legalities at issue, her experience is that Weinstein violated her.
Before Haley broke down, Bonjean underscored through questioning that before the alleged assault, Haley agreed to take a Weinstein-paid flight to Los Angeles to attend a premiere of his company’s “Clerks II.” The trip was the day after the alleged assault.
“Did you just think he was just being generous?” Bonjean asked.
Haley said she had accepted partly because she wanted to “get back in his good books” after turning down the Paris invitation, and the Los Angeles trip seemed more appropriate because she’d be traveling on her own and could also visit a friend there.
“You wanted to appease him, make him happy, make him like you?” Bonjean asked, suggesting the arrangement was a “win-win” for Haley.
“Well, that, too,” Haley said.
Haley testified on Thursday that a few weeks after the alleged assault, she agreed to meet Weinstein at a Manhattan hotel. She said she expected to talk in the lobby, but was instead directed to his room, where she says she had unwanted, but not forced, sex with him.
Weinstein’s retrial includes charges related to Haley and another accuser from the original trial, Jessica Mann, who alleges a 2013 rape. He’s also being tried, for the first time, for allegedly forcing oral sex on former model Kaja Sokola in 2006.
Mann and Sokola also are expected to testify.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they’ve been sexually assaulted unless they give permission for their names to be used. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.