Woman sues Harvey Weinstein after her testimony led to his rape conviction in L.A.
An Italian model whose testimony led to a Los Angeles jury in December finding Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape has filed a civil suit against the fallen film producer.
The woman, identified as Jane Doe 1, is suing Weinstein for sexual battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and other unnamed parties for negligence, according to a complaint filed in L.A. County Superior Court on Thursday. In the complaint, the victim’s attorneys wrote that “had said [unnamed parties] fulfilled their duties and responsibilities, plaintiff would not have been assaulted or raped.”
“Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of raping Jane Doe 1. Her lawsuit seeks to recover compensation from him for the horrific rape she endured and all of the issues she has suffered through for the past 10 years because of that rape,” attorney Dave Ring said in a statement. “We look forward to having Weinstein finally testify under oath in this case.”
Weinstein “has always denied the allegations” and “maintained that he was never together with her in [the] Mr. C hotel,” Juda Engelmayer, Weinstein’s spokesman, said in a statement to The Times.
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Engelmayer alleged that “certain witnesses lied about crucial evidence that could have exonerated Mr. Weinstein ...”
After his conviction, Weinstein filed a motion asking for a new trial.
According to the suit, Weinstein, 70, assaulted the woman at the Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel after a film festival in 2013. The woman met Weinstein at an event but returned to her room alone. Weinstein showed up at the hotel “unannounced” and called her from the front desk or lobby and demanded that she tell him her room number, which she declined to do.
Weinstein still appeared at her door and “bullied his way into the room,” where the woman was assaulted.
“He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do,” she told The Times in 2017. “He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me.”
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The woman reported the assault to the Los Angeles Police Department in 2017 amid the start of the #MeToo movement.
After a trial that spanned weeks, Weinstein was convicted of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object in connection with the incident.
“Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night. I will never get that back,” the woman said in a statement after the conviction. “But I knew I had to see this through to the end ... I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
However, the jury, which deliberated for more than nine days, acquitted Weinstein or could not reach a verdict on charges of rape and assault of three other women.
The latest allegations against the singer, filed by a Jane Doe today in New York, also names his record labels Interscope and Nothing as co-defendants.
Weinstein is serving a 23-year prison sentence for his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault in New York.
He faces a 24-year sentence in connection with the Los Angeles County conviction, pending the request of a new trial. It cannot be served until his New York sentence is completed in full.
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