A former production assistant on “Project Runway” tearfully recalled in court Wednesday the moment she realized “I’m getting raped” by Harvey Weinstein during an alleged assault at his SoHo apartment two decades ago.
Miriam “Mimi” Haley, 48, testified through tears about how she’d forcefully tried to push the powerful producer away — and he completely ignored her protests.
“I realized that I’m getting raped,” Haley said were the words going through her mind during the alleged 2006 attack.
Miriam “Mimi” Haley claims she was “mortified” after Harvey Weinstein allegedly sexually assaulted her. CURTIS MEANS/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock“The unthinkable was happening … I didn’t know when it was ending,” she told jurors at Weinstein’s retrial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Weinstein, 73 — who was brought into court in a wheelchair — shook his head as she testified and continued to look in Haley’s direction attentively as the day went on.
Haley was about 29 when she claims the then-Miramax movie studio boss had a driver pick her up from her apartment and take him to his pad — where he allegedly almost immediately “lunged at” her, trying to kiss her as they sat on his sofa.
The former TV production assistant — who also testified at Weinstein’s 2020 Manhattan rape trial — told the court in graphic detail about the disturbing July 10, 2006, assault that left her “mortified” and “in disbelief.”
“I rejected him and he kept persisting, trying to kiss me,” Haley said.
Haley claims the fallen movie mogul forcibly gave her oral sex in 2006 in his Manhattan apartment. via REUTERSThe then-110-pound Haley futilely attempted to “push him away,” but the much larger Weinstein wouldn’t relent and eventually grabbed her, forcing her into a “dark bedroom,” she testified.
“I was trying to get him off of me. I was trying to push him away from me. I was trying to get him to stop kissing me and grabbing me,” she described, before she began crying.
Haley said Weinstein pinned her on the bed and fumbled with her clothes, eventually taking her underwear off.
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“I couldn’t get away from his grip,” she told jurors.
Haley told Weinstein that she was on her period and had a tampon in, but undeterred, he “yanked it out,” she testified.
Harvey Weinstein allegedly ignored Haley’s repeated protests when he allegedly assaulted her. APHe then “forcefully” performed oral sex on her, she alleged.
“I don’t remember all that much from the moment,” she said. “I decided to check out.”
Haley said she made a calculated decision to let the encounter play out, deciding to “check out and endure it” after realizing she wouldn’t be able to fight him off.
“I was mortified. I was embarrassed. I was in disbelief,” she told the jury.
The next thing she remembered was “coming out of there and into the street,” Haley described.
She took a taxi home and eventually told her roommate what had happened later that night.
Haley said she thought about going to the police but ended up deciding against it.
Haley claims Weinstein raped her the next month in a Manhattan hotel. via REUTERS“My thoughts were that this person was very powerful in the entertainment industry and I risked having both the industry and the media turn against me and call me various things,” she said.
“I did kind of suppress it,” Haley said. “I found a way to kind of almost suppress, put it away and carry on like it almost didn’t happen although it bugged me in the back of my mind forever.”
Haley said a little over a month later, Weinstein “convinced” her to meet him again on July 26, 2006, at the TriBeCa Grand Hotel.
She said when she arrived in the room, Weinstein immediately “pulled” her onto the bed.
“‘Oh no, oh no — not again,’” she recalled thinking. “In that moment, I just felt so stupid.”
She said she went “numb” and lay there “like a dead fish.”
Weinstein allegedly called her “b—h” and “whore,” which made her feel “very, very small,” she testified, as she teared up again.
She said Weinstein had sexual intercourse with her without a condom and told her “don’t worry — I can’t have kids.”
On her way out, Haley said: “‘You know — you can’t keep doing this.’ I said that to him.”
She testified that Weinstein appeared unaffected by her comment.
“He just looked at me, like, whatever,” she said.
Haley, a Finnish native, said she encountered Weinstein a few times prior to the alleged assault, including once at the Cannes Film Festival in France the month before, when he allegedly asked her for a massage. She rebuffed that advance.
She told jurors about how she finally decided to go public about the alleged assault in 2017 amid the #MeToo movement that erupted after women started coming forward with allegations against Weinstein.“I felt that if there was going to be a time to share it, that was going to be a time,” Haley said.
She made a public statement about the alleged attacks on Oct. 24, 2017 and surprised herself as she broke down.
“I had planned to just go up there, make a statement in support but I just broke down in the middle of it,” she recalled. “I realized how much I had been carrying, how much I, you know, suppressed.”
It was her second day on the stand at Weinstein’s retrial that began last week — and her second time testifying against him in criminal court.
During the 2020 trial, she testified under the last name Haleyi — but testified Wednesday that she had eventually changed it to Haley to be more “generic.”
“If you Googled me, that was all that would come up,” which Haley said was problematic when looking for work and was also “uncomfortable” for her.
Haley’s testimony was very similar to her first stint on the stand. But some details revealed during her time on the stand Wednesday were new, such as her claim that Weinstein asked her “Don’t you think we’re much closer now?” after one of the alleged encounters.
She explained that she had sex with him once that wasn’t forced — if unwanted.
And this time around, prosecutors appeared to try to get ahead of emails that Weinstein’s lawyers used at the first trial to claim their encounters were consensual.
Haley explained Wednesday that in emails she was trying to get Weinstein to help her launch a show. So when she said, for instance, “lots of love” in a message, she claimed she was being polite and these were mere pleasantries — and not an indication of a consensual relationship.
Weinstein’s lawyers haven’t had the opportunity yet to cross examine Haley. She is expected to continue testifying Thursday.
Weinstein is on trial for the second time after his 2020 conviction was overturned. via REUTERSHe was sentenced to 23 years behind bars in that case.
But the initial guilty verdict was overturned last year by New York’s highest court, which found the trial judge made a bad call in allowing three women to testify about their alleged sexual assaults despite their claims not being part of the charges against Weinstein.
Weinstein — who has been accused by 80 women of sexual assaults and misconduct — faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted at the retrial on the top count.
Jurors are also expected to hear testimony from former actress Jessica Mann, who claims he raped her twice in 2013 — once in Manhattan and once in Los Angeles.
He was separately convicted in California of raping an Italian model at a film festival in Italy in 2013. He was sentenced to 16 years in that case — which he is appealing.
He’s maintained his innocence.







