Inside the Harvey Weinstein Rape Trial in Los Angeles

The trial, which began last month, is expected to last several more weeks.
By Lauren Herstik
Nov. 1, 2022
Every day last week during the beginning of Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial, jurors,
lawyers and spectators spilled out of elevators and onto the ninth floor of the
hulking Clara Shortridge Foltz courthouse in downtown Los Angeles.

Reporters and influencers slid into the back row of the gallery of Room 110 —
among us were a true crime podcaster and a TikToker looking for an angle her
followers would like.

More than two years after he was convicted of rape and criminal sexual assault in
New York, Weinstein, the former Hollywood producer whose downfall marked a
watershed moment for the #MeToo movement, is facing a second sex crimes trial
in Los Angeles.

The trial was once seen as largely symbolic because Weinstein, 70, still has 21
years left to serve in prison after his 2020 conviction. But the stakes of the Los
Angeles trial are higher following a recent decision by New York’s highest court to
allow Weinstein to appeal that conviction.

I’ve been in the courtroom nearly every day since the trial began, as prosecutors try
to detail a pattern of alleged sexual assaults of women, and Weinstein’s lawyers
counter that the sex was consensual and part of a Hollywood culture of
“transactional sex.” Weinstein, who has been accused by more than 90 women of
sexual misconduct, faces 11 charges, including rape, forcible oral copulation and
sexual battery by restraint.

Last week, on Monday, the first day of the trial, Gloria Allred wore a pink mask
one row in front of me. Tuesday, Lili Bernard, a Bill Cosby accuser, and two more
survivors sat in solidarity with the women on the stand who testified they were
assaulted by Weinstein.

It was a busy week for Hollywood sex-crime charges in the same courthouse.
Down the hall, the “That ’70s Show” actor Danny Masterson was pleading not
guilty to rape charges. On Tuesday, the “Scrubs” executive producer Eric
Weinberg stood accused of 18 counts of sexual assault downstairs.
The windowless courtroom for the Weinstein trial stayed mostly silent, as
mandated by a stern bailiff who also monitored for forbidden gum chewing and
cellphones. (One journalist was kicked out before anything started, on suspicion of
phone use.)

All we could hear was the scratch of the veteran court sketch artist Mona
Edwards’s pen on paper. Her work is iconic; if a celebrity has been on trial in Los
Angeles, you’ve probably seen their portrait signed “Mona.”

Every morning, the bailiff wheeled in Weinstein in a suit and tie. He appeared
drawn and pale. His lawyers said he is diabetic and nearly blind.
For two days, he sat looking straight at the masked jury of nine men and three
women until Judge Lisa Lench ordered him on Wednesday to sit beside his
lawyers Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson and to focus his gaze elsewhere.

Prosecutors seem to be largely relying on the strength of the accusers’ testimonies.

Weinstein’s lawyers aren’t holding back.

In his opening statements, Werksman called Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of
Gov. Gavin Newsom, “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get
ahead,” eliciting gasps from those seated in the courtroom. Siebel Newsom has not
yet appeared but is expected to testify that she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein
when she was an actress earlier in her career, according to her lawyer.

When Jane Doe 1 recounted graphic details of her alleged 2013 rape, her hands
trembled. She paused often and took slow, deep breaths. Lench ended the day early
when Jane Doe 1 broke down sobbing. Two men on the jury teared up.

The trial is expected to last several more weeks, and about 80 witnesses are
scheduled to take the stand by its end. This early, it’s particularly difficult to
discern what testimony and which arguments are landing, especially with jurors’
expressions largely cloaked by masks.