Manhattan prosecutors started winding up their case in the sexual assault retrial of Harvey Weinstein Tuesday, calling a clinical psychologist who discussed people’s general reactions after being raped as their final witness.
Prosecutors expect to rest Wednesday, six weeks into a trial that saw testimony from three women who said the Miramax mogul sexually assaulted them in the 2000s and 2010s.
Two of those accusers, actress Jessica Mann and former TV production assistant Miriam Haley, testified at Weinstein’s landmark 2020 Manhattan Supreme Court trial, but the state’s highest court overturned the jury’s guilty verdict in that case last year.
Haley and Mann returned to the witness box to once again recount how Weinstein raped them in 2006 and 2013, respectively. Mann testified about how she stayed in a “relationship” with Weinstein for years after, showering him with complimentary e-mails and at times engaging in consensual sexual encounters with him.
A third accuser, Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola, testified Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, even after he sexually abused her as a teenager years earlier.
Weinstein’ defense team has assaulted the credibility of the accusers, arguing that they manipulated Weinstein and took advantage of the “casting couch” to further their careers, then saw a payday as the #MeToo movement picked up steam after Weinstein was outed in news accounts as a serial sexual harasser.
On Tuesday, clinical psychologist Lisa Rocchio told the jury generally about how sexual assault victims often maintain contact with or stay in relationships, even sexual relationships, with their attackers.
“Part of that may be attempting to re-normalize or get back to what you perceive to be normal relations with the individual. You can convince yourself that this was a one-off,” Rocchio said.
She also said that victims will often “dissociate” after or during a sexual assault. “There’s a great deal of minimization … Telling yourself that it isn’t that big of a deal,” she said. “Typically people don’t use those really scary words like rape and sexual assault … We know people minimize as a coping strategy.”
Weinstein’s lawyers expect to cross-examine Rocchio on Wednesday before presenting their own witnesses.
It’s not yet clear if Weinstein will take the stand in his own defense.
