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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, confronted cross-examination from certainly one 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 choose dismissed 4 of the 11 counts in opposition to him on the request of prosecutors.
Weinstein lawyer Mark Werksman pressed Siebel Newsom about what she stated have been frequent nightmares she’d been having in regards to the encounter with Weinstein in a Beverly Hills lodge suite.
“Have you ever had a tough time really discerning what occurred in a nightmare and what really occurred in a bed room on the Peninsula Lodge?” Werksman requested.
“No, no,” Siebel Newsom responded.
She defined that the brand new components of her testimony, a few of which she stated underneath oath for the primary time on Monday, have 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 stated. “I had all the pieces in a field, and I’ve been slowly sharing somewhat 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 stated that she didn’t suppose her preliminary conversations with police and prosecutors would result in fees.
“I supplied to speak to detectives initially to assist different ladies, to not be up right here on the witness stand,” Siebel Newsom stated.
She then teared up as she did often Tuesday, although she was not almost 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 stated, “and also you didn’t suppose that the consequence of what you stated was that you’d be a sufferer in an indictment in a prison indictment?”
Siebel Newsom stated she thought her allegations have been prone to be past the statute of limitations.
“I actually was simply telling my reality 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, stated throughout his questioning that her testimony confirmed she had not made her lack of consent clear in the course of the encounter. He additionally confirmed her many pleasant emails she despatched to Weinstein within the years that adopted that Werksman stated 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 have been an unlucky necessity as a younger actor like she was on the time.
“I used to be simply surviving,” she stated.
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 courtroom. However each the prosecution and the protection have recognized her because the governor’s spouse in the course of the trial, and Siebel Newsom’s legal professional confirmed to The Related Press and different information shops 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’s going to now be the final of 4 ladies Weinstein is charged with assaulting to testify on the trial after Choose Lisa Lench dropped fees involving a fifth accuser.
Lench dismissed two counts of forcible rape and two counts of forcible oral copulation in opposition to the 70-year-old Weinstein.
The transfer had appeared doubtless because the trial’s opening statements, when prosecutors solely talked about 4 ladies 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 Lawyer Paul Thompson instructed the choose earlier than testimony started Tuesday they might not pursue the Jane Doe #5 counts.
The Los Angeles County District Lawyer’s Workplace has not offered an evidence for why they opted to depart the lady out of the trial.
The remaining fees in opposition to 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 stated he did not interact in nonconsensual intercourse.
Observe AP Leisure Author Andrew Dalton on Twitter: twitter.com/andyjamesdalton
For extra on the Harvey Weinstein trial, go to: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein
Copyright 2022 The Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be revealed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed with out permission.
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