LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, confronted cross-examination from one in every of Harvey Weinstein’s attorneys Tuesday about why her description of a 2005 encounter throughout which she says the filmmaker raped her has expanded since she first spoke with prosecutors.
The testimony got here three weeks into the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Weinstein, and on the identical day that the decide dismissed 4 of the 11 counts towards him on the request of prosecutors.
Weinstein lawyer Mark Werksman pressed Siebel Newsom about what she mentioned had been frequent nightmares she’d been having in regards to the encounter with Weinstein in a Beverly Hills resort suite.
“Have you ever had a troublesome time truly discerning what occurred in a nightmare and what truly occurred in a bed room on the Peninsula Lodge?” Werksman requested.
“No, no,” Siebel Newsom responded.
She defined that the brand new parts of her testimony, a few of which she mentioned below oath for the primary time on Monday, had been a results of having extra time to course of what occurred.
“As we’ve gotten nearer to this, and it’s gotten extra actual, my must make clear and be extra detailed” has elevated, Siebel Newsom mentioned. “I had the whole lot in a field, and I’ve been slowly sharing just a little bit at a time, as a result of that is so painful.”
As Werksman stored returning to transcripts of her preliminary conversations with prosecutors in 2020, Siebel Newsom mentioned that she didn’t suppose her preliminary conversations with police and prosecutors would result in prices.
“I supplied to speak to detectives initially to help different girls, to not be up right here on the witness stand,” Siebel Newsom mentioned.
She then teared up as she did sometimes Tuesday, although she was not practically as emotional as she was throughout her intense and dramatic testimony a day earlier.
“You’re the spouse of the governor of California on the time and also you’re about to fulfill with the police and a deputy DA,” Werksman mentioned, “and also you didn’t suppose that the consequence of what you mentioned was that you’d be a sufferer in an indictment in a legal indictment?”
Siebel Newsom mentioned she thought her allegations had been prone to be past the statute of limitations.
“I actually was simply telling my fact and I didn’t know what the result was going to be,” she testified.
Werksman, who says Siebel Newsom had consensual intercourse with Weinstein to advance her profession, mentioned throughout his questioning that her testimony confirmed she had not made her lack of consent clear through the encounter. He additionally confirmed her many pleasant emails she despatched to Weinstein within the years that adopted that Werksman mentioned wouldn’t have been despatched by somebody who had been raped.
She responded that she had put aside the assault in her thoughts, and the communications had been an unlucky necessity as a younger actor like she was on the time.
“I used to be simply surviving,” she mentioned.
Siebel Newsom goes by the identify Jane Doe #4 on the trial, and just like the others Weinstein is charged with raping or sexually assaulting, her actual identify just isn’t being spoken in court docket. However each the prosecution and the protection have recognized her because the governor’s spouse through the trial, and Siebel Newsom’s lawyer confirmed to The Related Press and different information retailers that she is Jane Doe #4.
The governor, who final week sailed to a second time period, was not within the courtroom for his spouse’s testimony.
She is going to now be the final of 4 girls Weinstein is charged with assaulting to testify on the trial after Choose Lisa Lench dropped prices involving a fifth accuser.
Lench dismissed two counts of forcible rape and two counts of forcible oral copulation towards the 70-year-old Weinstein.
The transfer had appeared possible because the trial’s opening statements, when prosecutors solely talked about 4 girls Weinstein was charged with assaulting, leaving out the accuser recognized in an indictment as Jane Doe #5.
The prosecutors at first stored the costs in place and left open the chance that the lady would testify. However Deputy District Legal professional Paul Thompson informed the decide earlier than testimony started Tuesday they’d not pursue the Jane Doe #5 counts.
The Los Angeles County District Legal professional’s Workplace has not offered a proof for why they opted to depart the lady out of the trial.
The remaining prices towards Weinstein, who’s serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York, are two counts of rape and 5 different sexual assault counts.
He has pleaded not responsible and has mentioned he didn’t have interaction in nonconsensual intercourse.
