Two friends of one accuser in the retrial of Harvey Weinstein testified for the prosecution Thursday. One witness called the disgraced film producer a rapist. Defense attorneys asked for a mistrial, which the judge denied. 

“He raped my friend and I am not happy about that,” a published author and podcaster Elizabeth Entin, told the jury at Manhattan criminal court on Thursday, referring to the defendant, Mr. Weinstein. 

Ms. Entin, who has also worked in fashion, finance and technology, and kept apologizing for speaking quickly, telling the court reporter that she was and talked like a “New Yorker,” shared an apartment in the East Village with Miriam Haley in 2006 when, as Ms. Haley alleges, Mr. Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her. 

Mr. Weinstein is on trial again in the Lower Manhattan criminal courthouse, after New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, overturned his 2020 conviction on sexual offenses and ordered a new trial. The court found that the trial judge had permitted damaging testimony by women who were not part of the indictment and thus prejudiced the jury. 

The retrial, which began with jury selection last week, includes the two previous charges –  the accusation by Ms. Haley, and a rape charge in the third-degree by a former aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 –  plus a new accusation by a former model, Kaja Sokola, who also alleges that Mr. Weinstein performed oral sex on her without her consent. 

None of the three accusers have testified yet. But on Thursday, two friends of Ms. Haley were called to the witness stand. 

Ms. Entin also testified in the previous trial. As the Associated Press reported, she told the jury in 2020 that Mr. Weinstein frequently came unannounced to the apartment, where she lived with Ms. Haley,  asked her roommate to accompany him on a trip to Paris. During one of these visits to her apartment, Ms. Entin’s chihuahua, she said, chased the film producer through their living room. According to the AP, prosecutors even showed the jury a picture of the pet dog, who was called Peanut. 

On Thursday, Ms. Entin did not mention the dog story. Instead she told the jury that during an event at Cipriani Downtown in SoHo, where she first met Mr. Weinstein, she observed him putting his arm around Ms. Haley’s waist, saying, “This is the sexiest woman I know.”          

Ms. Entin told the jury that after the comment, her friend “looked very uncomfortable… She was looking down and looking away.” 

Ms. Haley, who is a native of Finland and was in New York on a tourist visa, was assisting on “Project Runway,” a television program which Mr. Weinstein produced. A defense attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, said during cross-examination that Ms. Haley was “basically a runner for one week,” meaning she didn’t work on the show as an official production assistant but rather as an intern. 

“She was an assistant on ‘Project Runway’ and assisted” Mr. Weinstein,” Ms. Entin insisted. “I knew she was doing assisting work for him… because she was bringing things to his apartment… I was under the complete understanding that she was his assistant.”  

The defense attorney did not press the issue. Ms. Haley’s role on the TV show will presumably be clarified when she testifies. Regardless, her friend remembered that one evening in 2006, she came home from work and Ms. Haley was not her usual, lively self.  

“She was very uncomfortable… She was pacing… She was standing in the doorway awkwardly,” Ms. Entin testified. She said her friend’s face “was shaken,” and she appeared to be “very unfocused” and “anxious.” 

While Ms. Entin was not allowed to disclose the specific details of her conversation with Ms. Haley, she told the jury that “he,” Mr. Weinstein, “had forcibly put his mouth on her vagina without her consent.” 

The former film producer was sitting at the defense table in a wheelchair, looking straight at Ms. Entin, who then explained that she recommended that Ms. Haley contact an attorney. “I did say, I think, you should talk to a lawyer… ‘Miriam, that sounds like rape, I think you should call a lawyer.’”   

When asked why she did not suggest calling the police, Ms. Entin said she was raised that “if you have a problem” it’s best to call a lawyer “to navigate the system.” She also said that “rape has a different stigma in our society, and a different history,” and thus women have to “take a lot more careful steps.” 

Ms. Entin also added that she felt Ms. Haley’s demeanor changed after that evening. “We were always laughing… We laughed all the time… We went out together. She wanted to engage a lot less… She seemed to enjoy things a lot less… She is a very vital person.” Ms. Entin added that after the alleged sexual encounter with Mr. Weinstein, her friend was “more subdued” and “less comfortable… less spontaneous” and “a lot less interested in going out.”  

The defense tried to insinuate that Ms. Entin, who has published two books, and in one book mentions her testimony in the high-profile trial in 2020, was somehow interested in getting media attention, possibly to promote her books and podcasts. 

“You received many opportunities to be featured in the press?” Ms. Bonjean asked. But Ms. Entin replied that she had only testified to “defend her friend.” 

After the lunch break, prosecutors called another witness, another friend of Ms. Haley’s in 2006, who had not testified in the previous trial, a former model, actress and musician, Christine Pressman.

Ms. Pressman told the jury about a conversation she had with Ms. Haley in East Hampton in August or September of 2006, during which Ms. Haley told her about the alleged sexual assault. Ms. Pressman remembered advising Ms. Haley not to go to the police. 

“I said, ‘Harvey Weinstein is the king of New York. He’s extremely powerful. You are not. You’re here on a tourist visa. Just let it go,’” Ms. Pressman testified, tearing up as she spoke, and adding that she now regretted having given that advice.  

During cross-examination, Ms. Bonjean asked the witness if, before the alleged sexual abuse took place, she had suggested to Ms. Haley that she should date Mr. Weinstein. Ms. Pressman confirmed, she did indeed tell her friend that she should consider dating the film producer, but that her friend had “zero interest in dating him or sleeping with him.”  

The defense attorney then asked the witness if she knew that Ms. Haley was having consensual sex with Mr. Weinstein. But Ms. Pressman denied the claim. Her friend, she testified, did not have “consensual sex with Mr. Weinstein,” and would have “never ever ever” wanted to engage with him sexually. 

After the witness was excused, defense attorneys asked for a mistrial, arguing that Ms. Pressman had speculated on what she thought the alleged victim would have wanted or not wanted to do without basing her testimony on any facts.  

The presiding judge, Curtis Faber, denied the mistrial motion. The trial will not be in session this Friday, nor the following Monday. It will resume on Tuesday April 29. The trial is expected to last about six weeks.