Fallen movie mogul Harvey Weinstein raped an industry acquaintance during the 2000 presidential debate, a lawsuit from the new accuser alleges.
The woman, who filed her lawsuit anonymously under the name Jane Doe V, claims she first met the since-convicted rapist when she was 19, while attending the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where her then-boyfriend introduced her to Weinstein.
The now-55-year-old Pennsylvania woman says that for the first few years of knowing Weinstein, he kept his distance from her out of apparent respect for her boyfriend, the Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit shows.
But when the woman saw the now-68-year-old movie producer again in 1992, Weinstein noticed that she was single and started to take an interest in her career, which would “quickly turn into unwanted sexual advances,” the court papers claim.
She met with Weinstein on three occasions — all of which were sexually inappropriate and which culminated in the third and final encounter when Weinstein allegedly raped her, the court documents say.
Around the time that Weinstein sold Miramax to Disney in 1993, he invited her to his room at The Peninsula Beverly Hills for a cocktail before a dinner to celebrate “his newly found fame and wealth,” the suit says.
But Weinstein excused himself and then returned “in nothing but a bathrobe and exposed his genitals to plaintiff before she could utter a word,” the suit claims.
The woman mentioned to him that she had been at his 1987 wedding to then-wife Eve Chilton, noting “how that made the already uncomfortable situation simply untenable,” prompting Weinstein to put his clothes back on before the pair joined others for dinner at a restaurant nearby, the court documents allege.
Given this was the first time that Weinstein acted this way toward her and that he “had continuously promised to get her roles in his movies, she gave him the benefit of the doubt and the two remained in touch,” the suit says.
Then in 1994, they met at The Mayflower Hotel in New York City “under the guise of discussing business,” but this time Weinstein allegedly exposed his genitals to her and rubbed them against her “before she broke free and quickly exited the room,” the court papers claim.
Then “after having reestablished their relationship through years of ‘good’ behavior,” Weinstein “lured” her to his Big Apple home on a pretense of watching the 2000 presidential debate together where they ate sushi and drank, the court documents claim.
The woman got up to go to the bathroom and Weinstein “blocked plaintiff’s path, forced her down onto the bed, removed her underwear and forcibly raped her,” the court papers claim. “The sheer size and mass of Weinstein prevented plaintiff from being able to escape his clutches, but once he backed up, she broke free, sprinted for the door, and never saw Weinstein again.”
Since the alleged rape, the woman has endured “severe emotional distress” and “her career was derailed and she all but stopped acting,” the court papers say.
The victim says, like so many other women who knew Weinstein, she “was acting under extreme duress due to the credible threat of being blacklisted, harmed and/or personally attacked by Harvey Weinstein and other major players in the industry,” the suit claims.
Weinstein’s civil lawyer Imran Ansari said his client “intends to defend against the claims filed anonymously against him.
“Some of these claims, including those alleged to have occurred decades ago, may be barred by the applicable statute of limitations, and not subject to any exceptions under the law, as this plaintiff does not appear to be a complainant in Mr. Weinstein’s criminal case.”
Weinstein — who has been accused of sexual misconduct by over 90 women — is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence for his New York conviction. He also faces sexual assault charges in Los Angeles. That case is still pending.