Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and actor who’s married to Gavin Newsom of California Gov., is without doubt one of the accused Harvey Weinstein, who will testify in her rape and sexual assault trial that started Monday, her lawyer mentioned. .
“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at an alleged business meeting, which turned out to be a trap,” Newsom’s lawyer, Elizabeth Fegan, mentioned in an announcement.
“She intends to testify at her trial as part of her life’s work to seek some measure of justice for survivors and to improve the lives of women.” Weinstein, a 70-year-old former movie mogul who’s serving 23 years in jail after being convicted in New York, has pleaded not responsible to 11 counts of rape and sexual assault involving Newsom and 4 different ladies.
They will all testify as Jane Doe throughout an eight-week trial in a Los Angeles court docket the place jury choice started on Monday.
The Associated Press doesn’t typically title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused, however Newsom, by way of her lawyer, agreed to be named.
His involvement was first reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Newsom, 48, appeared in small roles in dozens of movies and tv reveals between 2002 and 2011. Most lately he has directed documentaries together with ‘The Great American Lie’ in 2020 and ‘Fair Play’ from this 12 months. Both take care of gender in society.
He wrote about his expertise with Weinstein in a 2017 essay within the Huffington Post, following tales within the New York Times and New Yorker that made him a magnet of the #MeToo motion, however gave few particulars.
Weinstein, lodged within the Los Angeles County Jail, was delivered to court docket on Monday in a wheelchair by way of a facet door, and climbed cautiously right into a seat subsequent to one among his legal professionals on the protection desk.
He was carrying a blue swimsuit, which is allowed to get replaced with a jail costume through the trial.
When the primary panel of 67 potential jurors was introduced in, he stood with the remainder of the room, however sat solely about midway by way of the method. When his legal professionals launched him, they waved him from his seat.
The jurors got a prolonged questionnaire geared toward screening those that wanted to be dismissed. The questions and solutions on the varieties are each non-public, however earlier hearings on its contents revealed that it contained questions on media protection of Weinstein, and whether or not he shaped an opinion from it, though the decide dismissed questions on particular tales. and media retailers.
Prosecutors might be allowed to current as a part of the proof for Weinstein’s conviction for rape and sexual assault, the place the state’s highest court docket has agreed to listen to his attraction.
The questionnaire additionally included a query a couple of California legislation that claims the testimony of a sexual assault sufferer alone will be adequate proof to convict if a juror believes them.
The jurors had been additionally given a protracted listing of names of witnesses within the impending trial, together with the names of the accused, to find out whether or not they had any ties to them.
The preliminary witnesses listing within the case had greater than 270 names, although lower than half are anticipated. Most of the potential witnesses haven’t been made public.
A witness, Barbara Schneweiss, producer of “Project Runway” and different tv reveals, was current in court docket on Monday morning and a decide instructed her she was on name to return at any time.
Two extra panels of 75 jury members might be introduced in on Tuesday and Wednesday. Inquiries from particular person jurors should not anticipated to start till subsequent week, and opening statements might not start till two weeks.
The lawsuit comes 5 years after the #MeToo motion exploded of girls’s tales about Weinstein.
Weinstein has been charged with 4 counts of rape and 7 different counts of sexual assault.
Most of his impeachment passed off below the guise of enterprise conferences at luxurious resorts in Newsom, Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters and the place he could possibly be seen throughout awards season and all year long. was.
Four of them occurred throughout Oscar week 2013, when Weinstein launched “Silver Linings Playbook” and “Django Unchained” would win an Academy Award.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
