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This article tells the stories of six women who testified against harvey weinstein during his criminal trial for sexual assault and rape. The women, including miriam haley, jessica mann, and tarale wulff, describe their experiences with weinstein and the impact of testifying in court. The article also discusses the legal proceedings, including weinstein's sentencing and the ongoing trial in los angeles.
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G U T T E R C R E D I T G U T T E R C R E D I T
3 8 V A R I E T Y V A R I E T Y 3 9
Circle
of
Trust
NEVER MORE READY Dawn Dunning (foreground), Miriam Haley (left) and Tarale Wulff arrive in court March 11 for the sentencing of Harvey Weinstein.
G U T T E R C R E D I T HALEY: RICHARD DREW/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK; SCIORRA: RICHARD DREW/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
— M i r i a m H a l e y
“ I TO L D T H E D. A. E V E RY T H I N G that hap- pened because I honestly just didn’t know what would come out from the defense, so I thought it was best to tell them the whole truth. But I didn’t think it would come up in the trial,” Dunning says of the time she alleges Weinstein stuck his hand up her skirt during a business meeting, slightly penetrating her with his fingers. The inci- dent occurred in 2004, shortly after Dun- ning first met the movie mogul when she was working as a cocktail waitress at a nightclub in New York City’s Meatpacking District. Weinstein struck up a professional conversation with her and volunteered to help with her acting career, suggesting he would arrange a meeting and even offer- ing to set up a screen test with his com- pany, Miramax. When Dunning arrived at the business meeting that Weinstein sched- uled at a swanky boutique hotel, Miramax employees were present in his suite, so the prospect of Weinstein acting inappropri- ately never crossed her mind. Prior to disclosing her personal story to the D.A.’s office, Dunning had only spoken up about a separate encounter with Wein- stein where she claims he propositioned her for a threesome, alongside his assistant, trying to lure her with the false promise that Charlize Theron and Salma Hayek had exchanged sex for movie roles. “Not one single human on Earth knew about it, let alone my husband or my par- ents or my best friends. I had to slowly go
around and tell everyone because the D.A. said this is going to become pub- lic, so you should probably tell your family,” Dunning recalls of her preparation for the trial. “I told my husband, I told some of my close friends, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell my dad.” Dunning recalls the morning her father arrived at her home, in the midst of the 2020 trial, with a copy of The New York Times in hand. He read the story and thought the newspaper had printed the wrong information about his daughter. “My dad had to read about my vagina in The New York Times,” Dunning says. “That was one of the hardest parts for me, aside from being followed and hav- ing to look over my shoulder constantly. I have two small kids, so I wondered if they were in danger or if I was in danger.” In the courtroom, Weinstein’s lead attorney, Donna Rotunno, attacked Dun- ning’s credibility. “‘Wait, wait, I forgot about the time he threw his finger in my vagina,’” Rotunno said during her closing arguments, mocking Dunning in front of the jury. Rotunno also challenged Lauren Young’s accusation that she was trapped and assaulted in 2013 in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom, where she was lured under the guise of a business meeting. Rotunno questioned the mental health of Jessica Mann, a hairdresser whose testimony resulted in Weinstein being convicted of rape in the third degree. Rotunno called Annabella Sciorra “the darling of the movement” and claimed that the actor reaped the benefits of a reignited career by saying she was raped by Weinstein in the early ’90s. Wein- stein’s attorney also argued that Tarale Wulff and Miriam Haley obtained civil attorneys Douglas Wigdor and Gloria Allred solely to squeeze money out of her client in anticipation of a “pot of gold” at the end of the trial.
These six women, who were cross-exam- ined in a courtroom of strangers, willingly gave up their privacy, testifying about grue- some details of their sexual assaults in front of high-profile lawyers, international media and a 12-person jury, which ulti- mately found Weinstein guilty of a crimi- nal sex act and rape. Following the verdict, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison; he still awaits a trial in Los Angeles, where he faces a maximum sentence of an additional 28 years. “Justice is a weird thing. I’m not even sure what that means,” says Haley, a for- mer “Project Runway” production assistant who served as one of the two key witnesses in the trial. “Obviously it’s not going to undo the harm and damage that he did,” she says of Weinstein’s substantial sentencing. “I am completely convinced that if Harvey Wein- stein was not being confined in prison, he would be out there doing what he was doing — he would still be abusing, assaulting and raping people — and he would have felt even more empowered.” Dunning says she can’t fathom that Weinstein — now, a convicted rapist — was finally brought to trial. “I’m just still in dis- belief,” she says of the sentencing. Wulff was also skeptical that Weinstein would receive a long prison sentence. “There was this dreamy version of us wanting maximum sentencing, but then there’s the reality of the legal system, and we kept hearing it might be in single digits,” Wulff says, recalling the day in court when Justice James Burke sentenced Weinstein aloud. “When the [number] ‘23’ came out, my body just fell forward.” Haley believes the verdict and sentenc- ing make a strong statement about the direction society is headed. She says the jury and the judge allowed themselves to be educated in a highly complicated case of he said, she said, with very little hard evi- dence. “They were informed. They under- stand. They heard us,” she says. Haley, Wulff, Dunning, Sciorra, Mann and Young are just six of at least 100 women who have publicly come forward over the past three years to accuse Weinstein. Together, they did the impossible. They took down Hollywood’s kingmaker, who counted Bill and Hillary as friends, and was com- pared to God by Meryl Streep at the Oscars. The week following the 2020 Acad- emy Awards, as Weinstein shuffled into
the criminal courthouse with the aid of his walker, reporters asked if he had watched the ceremony. Inside the courtroom, women told their horror stories about being preyed upon at The Weinstein Co.’s Oscar parties. Working with the D.A.’s office for two years, in preparation for the trial, forced the women to relive the trauma they experienced at the hands of Wein- stein, but they chose to sacrifice their anonymity, their reputations and their personal relationships. “I did not prepare for what would come after my testimony — there was a lot of good that came out of it, but for me, personally, the hardest thing that I’m still dealing with is losing a friendship because of it,” Wulff says through tears. “Some people don’t want to be associated with me coming forward. I think it’s important for people to know that. It’s the last person I thought I would lose as a friend, and I never thought that would happen, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.” All three women who spoke to Variety for this piece in the month following Weinstein’s sentencing say they do not regret taking part in the trial. They rec- ognize the value of their testimony and are hopeful for future generations of women. But now, they are learning how to navigate their lives post-trial, wres- tling with media attention and the pressure to use their new platform — not to mention continuously coping with their trauma. The six women who testified were not allowed to meet one another until the day of the sentencing, when lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi brought them together in the early morning. Now, with a shared experience that no one else can understand, the women are on a group chat and text each other daily. “Even if our conversation dies down in a year or two, I know I can call them in 15 years. Regardless of how we were brought together or why, we created something from that,” Wulff says of her new support system. “Having them has helped me keep validating what I’m feeling. It’s really easy to move on because you feel like you have to, but these girls, their ears will never wear out.” The newfound friends have found solace in an unintended bright spot of the trial: the public’s education about sexual assault trauma. During her victim impact statement at Weinstein’s sentencing, Mann — who testified for three days in painful detail about the sexual assaults she suffered over a complex five-year relationship with Weinstein — faced the judge and told him what she learned about rape and trauma throughout the trial. “Rape is not just one moment of penetration. It is forever,” she said. Referencing the headline-making moment when she was crying so hard that she had to be helped off the stand mid-testimony, she told the judge, “The day my uncontrollable screams were heard from the witness room was the day
Dawn Dunning first met with the Manhattan District
Attorney’s Office in early 2018, nearly two years
before she testified in the Harvey Weinstein trial.
During a private meeting, Dunning, a former aspiring
actor and mother of two small children, revealed a
story she had never told.
FINALLY HEARD Miriam Haley, a former “Project Runway” produc- tion assistant, was one of two key witnesses on which the charges against Weinstein rest- ed; Annabella Sciorra was the first woman to testify in the trial.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS The Silence Breakers, a group of women who have accused Weinstein of sexual miscon- duct or assault, hold a press conference in Los Angeles on Feb. 25.^ (PREVIOUS SPREAD) ROY ROCHLIN/GETTY IMAGES (THIS PAGE) CHRIS PIZZELLO/AP/SHUTTERSTOCK
