Rosie Perez: Actress Told Me Weinstein Raped Her

Annabella Sciorra was afraid to go the police, her friend testifies
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jan 24, 2020 4:05 PM CST
Sciorra Told Her of Rape by Weinstein, Rosie Perez Says
Harvey Weinstein, second from left, arrives at court for his trial on charges of rape and sexual assault, Friday, Jan. 24, 2020, in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

Do the Right Thing actress Rosie Perez testified Friday that fellow screen star Annabella Sciorra told her in the mid-1990s that Harvey Weinstein had raped her but that she couldn't go to the police because "he'd destroy me." Taking the stand at the former Hollywood mogul's rape trial, Perez said her friend Sciorra had told at some point in 1993, her voice shaking on the phone, that something had happened to her: "I think it was rape." Perez said she asked if Sciorra knew who had attacked her, but Sciorra wouldn't say. But months later, on another phone call from London, she said Weinstein was harassing her and she was scared, Perez said. "I said, 'He's the one that raped you,’” and they both began crying, Perez testified. "Please go to the police," Perez said she told her friend. She said Sciorra responded: "I can't — he'd destroy me."

On Thursday, Sciorra told jurors that the movie producer pushed his way into her apartment, pinned her on a bed and forced himself on her in 1993 or 1994. She said Perez was one of a few people she told about the attack before coming forward publicly in 2017. Weinstein denies ever having nonconsensual sex. Defense lawyer Damon Cheronis pressed Perez on why she didn't go to police, or to Sciorra's home, when the actress first told her. "Because I was being respectful," Perez said. Weinstein, the studio boss whose downfall energized the #MeToo movement, is charged with forcibly performing oral sex on a former production assistant in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in 2013. Sciorra is among four additional accusers expected to testify against him as part of an effort by prosecutors to show that Weinstein preyed on women. ("My body shut down," Sciorra told the jury.)

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