The 'Sopranos' actress choked up while testifying as she described how Harvey Weinstein raped her in her New York apartment.
NEW YORK — A second day of testimony in Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial began Thursday with the first accuser to take the stand, Annabella Sciorra, the"Sopranos" actress who choked up as she described how Weinstein raped her in her New York apartment in the winter of 1993-94 and later told her in a"threatening" way not to tell anyone.
" was there and pushed the door open, so I didn't have an opportunity to know why he was there," she said."Then he started to unbutton his shirt, and then I realized that in his head, he wanted to have sex and I didn’t want to...I realized what he wanted was pretty obvious, so I started to back up into my bathroom....I felt very overpowered because he was very big.
"I thought he was a nice person. I thought he was an OK guy," she said."I felt confused. I felt like I wished I had never opened the door....I felt at the time that rape happened in a back alleyway by somebody you .""I tried to talk to him about what happened and I told him how I woke up and that I’d blacked out, and he said, ‘That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say,'"she said.
"I wanted to protect me… but I didn’t tell them what happened," she said."I really wanted somebody in my family but I didn’t want to tell my parents....It was hard to talk about." Weinstein is not charged with a crime in connection with Sciorra's allegation, because it's too old to prosecute under the statute of limitations. But the Manhattan District Attorney's office is offering her testimony to bolster the"predatory" charges against Weinstein, which can increase prison time if he's convicted.
On Wednesday, after the jury had been dismissed, Weinstein's lawyers complained that the jury had been"poisoned" by the prosecution's opening statement. It described Weinstein as a"predatory monster," and included showing a picture of him posing with former President Bill Clinton. "At the end of this trial, the evidence will be clear, that the man seated right there was not just a titan in Hollywood, but a rapist," Hast said." his power and prestige in the entertainment industry to ensure silence. … Although they're strangers to one another, they’ll each describe to you their shame and humiliation following their violent encounters with the defendant.
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