Former film producer Harvey Weinstein, left, interacts with his attorney Mark Werksman in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Calif., on Tuesday, Oct. 4 2022.
When Young testified in New York in February of 2020, she was not one of the accusers whose stories would lead to Weinstein's conviction for rape and sexual assault and a 23-year prison sentence. But prosecutors called on her to testify to help establish a pattern of Weinstein preying on women.
She said she was stunned as he quickly shed his suit and got briefly in the shower, then stepped out and blocked her from leaving when she went for the door.She said she backed up against a sink and turned away from him. He then unzipped her dress and groped her with one hand as he masturbated with the other.
Jackson also tried to cast doubt on whether Weinstein could have slipped out of his suit as quickly as she described. He pulled off his own suit coat to demonstrate."Please don't," Young answered. Young's testimony closely hewed to her account during the New York trial. But during cross-examination, Jackson pointed out that it differed in many respects from her early accounts to police starting in 2018, when she called a hotline set up for reports about Weinstein after the .MeToo movement exploded.
"And since then your testimony and your statements have gotten far more detailed and far more colorful, right?" Jackson said.
He was the admiration of most Hollywood celebrities. Many knew about him and said nothing.