Harvey Weinstein Trial: 2 More Women Testify About Rape, Groping Allegations
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) – Two more women took the stand Wednesday in the rape trial against Harvey Weinstein.
He's not facing charges in their alleged attacks, but prosecutors are having more accusers testify in hopes of showing Weinstein was a serial predator.
Web Extra: Read the indictment against Weinstein (pdf)
Dawn Dunning, a former bottle service waitress and aspiring actress at the time, alleges Harvey Weinstein groped her at a meeting in a hotel room in 2004, putting his hand up her skirt and saying "it's not a big deal, don't make a big deal about this, said it wouldn't happen again."
She said about a month later she met with him again and he said he'd give her movie roles, saying "here's contract's for three films. I'll sign them today if you have a threesome with me and my assistant."
She said she laughed because she thought he was kidding, "but when I said no he got really angry, started screaming at me, and said 'you'll never make it in this business. This is how this industry works.'"
She says he then mentioned actresses Salma Hayek and Charlize Theron.
The defense pointed out that after the first alleged incident, she agreed to meet with him again.
Tarale Wulff then took the stand, and said while working as a cocktail waitress. Weinstein led her to a terrace where she says he started touching himself.
She says she froze then ran.
On another occasion she described getting a call about reading for movie at the Weinstein offices in Greenwich Village. When she got there, she was told a car was waiting for her which took her to an apartment.
She says he put her on a bed and when she told him she can't, "he answered 'Don't worry, I have a vasectomy.'"
She said she froze and he raped her.
Weinstein, 67, is not charged in those alleged attacks, but he is charged with alleged sexual assaults on two other women. As for the other accusers testifying, these alleged incidents are outside the statute of limitations.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty and says any sexual encounters were consensual.
The defense has called the extra witnesses a distraction.
A fourth accuser will be called to testify. Her allegation is part of a criminal case filed against Weinstein in California.
Jurors so far have heard a tearful Mimi Haley recall how she tried to fight off Weinstein before he sexually assaulted her. Last week, "Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra testified that Weinstein overpowered and raped her after barging into her apartment in the mid-1990s.
On Tuesday, it was Elizabeth Entin, Haley's former roommate, who took stand to corroborate Haley's testimony. Before the alleged attack in Weinstein's Soho apartment, Entin said, the friends viewed Weinstein as a "pathetic old man" for pursuing Haley, and were amused when her pet Chihuahua, Peanut, once chased him around their apartment in the East Village.
When a reporter asked Weinstein as he left the courtroom if he was afraid of Chihuahuas, he smiled and responded: "Do I look like I'm afraid of Chihuahuas?"
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they have been victims of sexual assault, unless they agree to be named or gone public with their stories as Haley, Wulff, Dunning and Sciorra have done.
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
