Miramax sequel dancer “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” testified Thursday that Harvey Weinstein all but ordered her off the active Puerto Rico set where she was working and into his car – using a female assistant to assure her compliance – then pinned and sexually assaulted her on the bed in his hotel room.
The witness is a tall blonde woman wearing a black shirt and black pants with white cuffs. “Ashley M.,” entered the courtroom Thursday afternoon along with a victims’ services aide and LAPD detectives. As soon as she took the stand, she started sniffling and blotting out her eyes before any questions were asked.
Marlene Martinez, Deputy District Attorney, began asking questions. She couldn’t get her words out so Judge Lisa Lench ordered an afternoon break. As she broke into apologetic sobs, shed called for Judge Lisa Lench to call for an afternoon break. With some [inaudible]After hearing the judge’s words of comfort, they recoiled and tried again after lunch.
She had been offered the role of the lead’s body double and was familiar with Weinstein’s name when she traveled to Puerto Rico alone at 22 years old. After a week of filming, she told me that she instantly recognized Weinstein when he walked up while she was waiting for a scene to be filmed.
She said that he was talking about a matter of minutes. “naked massage.” She immediately told him she was engaged, and when Weinstein asked to whom, she told him her fiancee’s full name. Weinstein claimed that he knew this man. Weinstein then returned to the “naked massage” – saying he’d done “things like that”Gwyneth Paltrow and that it “would be good for my career,” Ashley M. testified.
She stated that she began looking for a way out immediately, and was able to grow from the experience. “scared” of Weinstein’s aggressive advances: “I’m supposed to be on set, which I was … so I thought I would just be able to go on set. He replied saying, ‘I’m the one in charge here, they all answer to me.”
During lunch break, she heard Weinstein say that he was going. “waiting for her”She took her back to the hotel. Panicking, she said she called her mother and fiancee separately, and both told her to talk to producers and choreographers – which she did, but said they offered no help.
When she returned from lunch, Weinstein was, in fact, waiting at the front entrance – but he saw a woman with him. “At that point I felt better just knowing that I wasn’t alone.”
She said the woman was Bonnie Hung, Weinstein’s personal assistant at the time. Ashley M. was there when she saw her, she said. “Walk to Bonnie, and get in the car.”
“‘Walk to Bonnie and get in the car,’ for some reason I always have that in my head,”She said.
Ashley M. said that Hung looked at her with a look like “can you help me?,”And “she looked me in the eyes and said ‘Don’t worry I’ll be with you the entire time. He just wants to talk about future projects.’”
Martinez then asked her why, at that point, she didn’t walk back to the set.
“Because nobody else was going to help me,”She said that Weinstein was in charge. She believed it, even though Hung claimed they were only meeting to discuss projects.
She said that they did discuss future projects while driving, but she was shocked when they pulled up at a hotel. “If Bonnie hadn’t have been there I would have been freaking out but I felt more at ease because Bonnie was there,”She said.
They rode up and down an elevator. “what seemed lie a really long hallway, and Bonnie was there with her clipboard,”Ashley M. stated. When she remembered walking towards a room with Bonnie, she began to fall again.
But then “I went in, and he went, in and … ”She begins to cry again. “And then Bonnie shut the door behind us.”
She claimed that Weinstein was immediately aggressive. “shoved me on the bed. … He was just saying a bunch of stuff and he shoved me and he ended u taking off my top and my clothes, my bra.”
Weinstein tried to reassure her. “It’s not like we’re having sex, it’s just naked cuddling.”She replied, “I am!” “really scared”And “didn’t know what to do.”She claimed that she had told him to stop. “I just remember in my head thinking, ‘What do I do? Should I make a run for it?’ But I knew that he was just really big and I knew Bonnie was most likely out there so I didn’t know what to do.”
She claimed she was crying and becoming hysterical when Weinstein tried to straddle her. “ripped off my top and bra,”And began to masturbating and sex with her breasts.
Martinez asked about Weinstein’s abnormal genitalia, which has been detailed in previous testimony.
“From the angle where he was his stomach was out so I couldn’t see it as well from the angle of being … I just saw the motion of his hand. … He just said ‘It’s OK, it’s not like we’re having sex.’ And then he ejaculated on me, on my breasts and some on my face.”
“I was just really thankful that I wasn’t raped,”She said. “I remember wiping off just getting dressed really fast and leaving really fast.”
She claimed Weinstein was dressing up as she left her hotel room and that she saw Hung. “right at the front door.”Ashley claims that Ashley was still crying and hysterical, but Hung didn’t make eye contact. “just stood there with her [clipboard].”
They rode the limousine back towards the set. Ashley M. doesn’t remember if they had any conversations, but she said that they did. “remained hysterical”For the whole drive.
She stated that she spoke vaguely to her mom and fiancee about what had happened but did not report the incident on set.
“I felt that at that time everyone was afraid of their career and stuff,”She said. “Nobody helped me at the dinner, so why would they help me now?”
Judge Lisa Lench called it quits for the day. The court was scheduled to resume at 9:15 a.m. Friday
Earlier Thursday:
Harvey Weinstein’s former personal driver took the stand Thursday, saying he dropped his client off at the Peninsula around 12:30 a.m. on the night an Italian model and actress said she was later raped at another hotel a short distance away – in what prosecutors painted as a timeline that seems to keep evolving.
But, before the prosecutors could begin to grill Alfred “Freddy”Baroth spoke about his temporal sense and offered a glimpse into the work environment for a pre-fall Weinstein. Mark Werksman, a Weinstein lawyer, was questioning Baroth about answering questions. He also asked him to comply with investigators. “When you see a red light, I assume you stop.”
“With Mr. Weinstein?” was Baroth’s answer, prompting laughter in the courtroom.
Redirect: Paul Thompson, Deputy District Attorney, asked Baroth what he meant by that response.
“If we were running late,”Baroth claimed, “there was no such thing as a red light. If we were in a hurry we would go through it.”
Baroth was sworn-in as Jane Doe 1, a model-actress, who had given her testimony on the evening before. The driver stated that he founded Limousines of Los Angeles (2009/2010), with at least 60% of his business coming directly from Weinstein. He stopped working as Weinstein’s personal driver in 2017 after the disgraced producer’s arrest, and said he has given testimony twice in 2019 to police, and once to a grand jury in 2021.
Baroth testified that Weinstein prefers to stay on the Peninsula. “a five- or six-minute drive” to Mr. C’s. He said Weinstein never stayed at Mr. C’s, but would go to dinner and attend functions there.
Jane Doe 1 testified over three days that she was staying at Mr. C’s during LA Italia Fest on Feb. 17, 2013, “barely”Weinstein spoke with her that night and she returned to her bedroom shortly after midnight. She could not pinpoint when Weinstein appeared, but he did so unannounced.
Baroth stated that he drove Weinstein that evening, as he did throughout the week at LA Italia Fest. Though he couldn’t remember his schedule from that day, prosecutors produced an email from Weinstein’s assistant saying he was scheduled to be dropped of at LA Italia Film Festival at 8:45.
Thompson pointed out that Baroth claimed that he dropped Weinstein at the Peninsula at 1 AM. However, he later told Mark Werksman, his defense attorney that it was 1:02. He then told Mark Werksman that it was 1:35; and told Los Angeles Police in 2019. “I got done with Mr. Weinstein around 1:30 a.m.,”He also spoke to a grand jury in March.
Thompson also challenged Baroth on his statement that he answered all questions police had asked. Thompson showed a transcript and noted that Baroth stated in his Beverly Hills Police Department interview about sexual assault allegations in 2019. “Don’t push me.”
Baroth testified that he didn’t recall saying that.
“You then said, ‘It’ll be a long drive home,’ meaning you will refuse to answer further questions?”Thompson was back.
Baroth responded: “Absolutely not!”
Baroth was dismissed and the court took an indefinite recess.
Weinstein is facing 11 sexual assault charges stemming from allegations dating back to 2004 and 2013. The trial is expected to last into December after a two-week jury selection process seated a panel last Thursday of nine men and three women. Weinstein could be sentenced to up to 140 years imprisonment if convicted.
He is already serving 23 years in a New York prison for criminal first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, a conviction he has been granted the right to appeal. Weinstein has maintained that he is innocent since the New York Times made allegations against him in 2005.
More to come …