Rape Details Of New Harvey Weinstein Accuser Emerge
The lawyer of another actress accusing disgraced Hollywood executive Harvey Weinstein of rape detailed the incident leading up to what the victim said was her “greatest regret.”
Responding to a new investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department, David Ring in a Friday press conference said his client, a 38-year-old former Italian actress, met Weinstein one time at the Los Angeles-Italia Film Fashion and Art Festival in 2013 and had a very brief conversation with him.
That evening, Weinstein allegedly appeared at her hotel just outside Beverly Hills and “basically bullied his way up into her room,” Ring told media outlets. He likened the conversation to a similar incident in New York City that police recorded through a wire worn by Filipina-Italian model, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez.
“Obviously her greatest regret is opening that door,” Ring said of his client’s encounter. “But she had no idea what was coming.”
Ring added that what happened to her “was really horrible, it’s had a humongous impact on her life.”
“In a sense she’s relieved to have come forward now, to be able to share what happened with LAPD, but she’s also extremely scared and rightfully so,” he said.
Ring’s client is the sixth woman to accuse the film producer of rape or forcible sex acts, and the first to be reported in Southern California. Unlike most allegations against Weinstein, the new case is within the 10-year statute of limitations for the crime that took place at the time of the incident alleged.
Her lawyer decided to talk because the Los Angeles Times found out about the LAPD’s investigation and asked him to talk, TMZ reported.
Inside the hotel, according to the Los Angeles Times, Weinstein bragged about his power and did not listen to her pleas for him to go away despite pictures she showed him of her children and mother who was receiving chemotherapy treatments.
“He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do. He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me,” Ring’s client, who did not want to be named for fear of retaliation and to protect the privacy of her children, told the newspaper.
Defense attorney Dmitry Gorin told the Los Angeles Times that the allegations could “open the door to a prosecution if the evidence exists.”
More than 40 women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment or assault over decades and range in severity, from inappropriate remarks and unwanted touching to non-consensual oral sex and rape.
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