Weinstein Accuser Shares Tampon Detail in Court

Mimi Haleyi testifies he ripped it out of her during 2006 sexual assault
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2020 1:30 PM CST
Weinstein Accuser's Testimony Involves a Tampon
Mimi Haleyi, right, arrives to testify in Harvey Weinstein's trial on charges of rape and sexual assault, Monday, Jan. 27, 2020 in New York.   (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

In an account that the AP reports was delivered amidst sobs, former production assistant Mimi Haleyi on Monday testified that Harvey Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in July 2006. Her allegation is one of two that led to Weinstein being charged, and the 42-year-old detailed that allegation on the stand. She provided background, explaining she had met the movie producer at the 2004 London premiere of The Aviator and ran into him two years later at the Cannes Film Festival, where she inquired about working on one of his productions. A production assistant job with Project Runway followed, and he subsequently invited her to his Soho apartment. Haleyi said their visit was initially normal, but then he "lunged at me, trying to kiss me. I got up from the sofa and I said, 'Oh no.'"

Haleyi testified that he ended up backing her into a bedroom, where she fell backward onto a bed and was pushed down when she tried to get up. The New York Post has her graphic description of what followed: "He pushed me down, he held me down by my arms. ... He forced himself on me orally. I was on my period. I had a tampon in there. I was mortified ... I kept trying to tell him, 'No, don't go there and don't do that. I'm on my period. I have a tampon in.' It was as if he didn’t believe me and he said something like, 'Where is it, then?' like that and he actually pulled my tampon out." About two weeks later she met him at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, in a bid to try to "regain some sort of power or something," she said. Instead, he raped her, she testified. The New York Times reports Weinstein's lawyers will argue the two had a years-long consensual relationship. (Those lawyers in 2018 publicized a text Haleyi sent him.)

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