CA's First Lady Among Accusers Testifying In Harvey Weinstein Trial

LOS ANGELES, CA — Five years after women's stories about him made the #MeToo movement explode, Harvey Weinstein is going on trial in the city where he once was a colossus at the Oscars.

Jury selection was set to begin Monday in the trial of the former film producer, who was extradited from New York to Los Angeles in connection with sex-related counts involving five women. The trial takes on new significance as an appeals court in New York, where Weinstein was convicted and imprisoned for rape, agreed to consider Weinstein's appeal.

Among the accusers set to testify, is California's First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.

“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at a purported business meeting that turned out to be a trap," Siebel Newsom’s attorney, Elizabeth Fegan told the Times. "She intends to testify at his trial in order to seek some measure of justice for survivors, and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women,” Fegan said. “Please respect her choice to not further discuss this matter outside of the courtroom.”

Already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault in New York, the 70-year-old former movie mogul faces different allegations including several that prosecutors say occurred during a pivotal Oscar week in Los Angeles.

Weinstein was initially charged in January 2020 by Los Angeles County prosecutors with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by use of force involving one woman on Feb. 18, 2013, and sexual battery by restraint involving another woman a day later.

Weinstein was subsequently charged in April 2020 with sexual battery by restraint involving another woman. In November 2020, prosecutors added six more counts -- three counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation - - involving two alleged victims in Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2010.

The grand jury subsequently indicted Weinstein on the same charges.

Four more women will be allowed to take the stand to give accounts of Weinstein sexual assaults that did not lead to charges, but which prosecutors hope will show jurors he had a propensity for committing such acts.

Weinstein was extradited from New York, where he was convicted of raping an aspiring actress and a criminal sex act against a former production assistant. The state's highest court has since agreed to hear his appeal involving that case.

The trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom -- including the jury selection process -- is expected to last about two months.

Weinstein -- who remains behind bars -- produced such films as "Shakespeare in Love," which in 1999 received the best picture Oscar, and "Pulp Fiction."

Starting in the 1990s, Weinstein, through the company Miramax that he ran with his brother, was an innovator in running broad and aggressive campaigns promoting Academy Award nominees. He had unmatched success, pushing films such as “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Artist” to best picture wins and becoming among the most thanked men ever during Oscar acceptance speeches.

It was during Oscars week in 2013, when Jennifer Lawrence would win an Academy Award for the Weinstein Co.'s “Silver Linings Playbook" and Quentin Tarantino would win for writing the company's “Django Unchained,” that four of the 11 alleged crimes took place.

Like most of the incidents in the indictments, they happened under the guise of business meetings at luxury hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles, which Weinstein used as his California headquarters and where he could be seen during awards season and throughout the year. He was treated as more than a VIP. At a pre-trial hearing, the chauffeur who drove Weinstein around Los Angeles testified that even he was allowed to take as much as $1,000 in cash in Weinstein’s name from the front desk of the hotel where the mogul was staying.

Weinstein will be represented by different lawyers in Los Angeles, Alan Jackson and Mark Werksman. They have expressed worries that the movies may play a role in trial.

The film “She Said," which fictionalizes the work of two New York Times reporters and their bombshell stories on Weinstein, is set to be released midway through the trial on Nov. 18.

Weinstein's lawyers lost a bid to have the proceedings delayed over the film, with the judge rejecting their argument that publicity surrounding it would prejudice a potential jury against him.

“This case is unique," Werksman said at a pretrial hearing. "Mr. Weinstein’s notoriety and his place in our culture at the center of the firestorm which is the #MeToo movement is real, and we’re trying to do everything we can to avoid having a trial when there will be a swirl of adverse publicity toward him," Werksman said at a pretrial hearing.

Weinstein's trial is one of several with #MeToo connections that have begun or are about to begin as the fifth anniversary of the movement's biggest moment passes, including the rape trial of “That ‘70s Show” actor Danny Masterson just down the hall from Weinstein’s and the New York sexual assault civil trial of Kevin Spacey.

City News Service, The Associated Press and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.