US actor Rosie Perez testified in New York on the third day of the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein on Friday, describing phone calls she had with Annabella Sciorra where she learned Sciorra was allegedly raped.
Perez said she called Sciorra on a chilly night in 1993. Perez was in a good mood, saying, “Girl, what’s up? Wanna hang out?” hoping Sciorra was interested in going out that night.
Instead, Sciorra told Perez in a serious, whispered voice: “I think something happened to me.” Perez pressed Sciorra further, and Sciorra quietly said: “I think I was raped.”
“It was so strange because she whispered it,” Perez said, before whispering into the microphone in demonstration.
Though Sciorra is not a complainant in Weinstein’s criminal case now playing out in a courtroom in Manhattan, where two other women with more recent cases are the ones formally attached to the charges of rape and sexual assault against the fallen movie mogul , she was called in as a key witness to his alleged pattern of predatory behavior.
On Thursday, Sciorra took the witness stand and gave harrowing testimony on Weinstein’s alleged rape of her in the winter of 1993-94 at her apartment in Manhattan. She re-enacted Weinstein pinning her down on to her bed. “He got on top of me and he raped me,” she said. She said Weinstein then forcibly performed oral sex on her after, telling her: “This is for you.”
Recalling the subsequent phone call with Sciorra, Perez recalled on Friday she asked Sciorra if she knew who assaulted her, and encouraged her to call the police. She recalled Sciorra saying, “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t” before hurriedly saying she had to go. Perez said she tried to call Sciorra multiple times that night but Sciorra never picked up the phone.
A few days later, when Perez was able to reach Sciorra, she told Perez she was fine and that she did not want to talk about it any further.
Several months later, Perez said she got a phone call from Sciorra, who was in London, who eventually said it was Weinstein who assaulted her.
During her testimony on Thursday, Sciorra told the jury Weinstein showed up at her hotel room in the middle of the night. Perez recalled Sciorra calling her up and telling her that Weinstein was “harassing her and that she was scared that he was going to get her again”, Perez said.
“Then I said, ‘He’s the one that raped you’,” Perez recalled.
Once Perez knew the identity of Weinstein, Sciorra gave her more details of the incident. “She was crying and she swore me to never tell anybody,” Perez said. Perez said when she encouraged Sciorra to call the police, Sciorra said: “It’s going to destroy my career.”
In cross-examination, Weinstein’s defense team pressed Perez on why she did not take more urgent action when she learned that her friend was assaulted. “I was in a panic, I didn’t know what to do. I was scared, I was scared for her,” Perez said, breathlessly speaking to the jury. “I was in a panic, I kept calling her repeatedly, crying, begging her to pick up the phone.”
Weinstein, 67, has denied all the charges.
Earlier in the day, a forensic psychiatrist testified as an expert witness, dispelling common “rape myths” and explaining common behavior of sexual assault victims to the trial’s jury.
As a powerpoint presentation titled “rape myths” was pulled up in front of the jury, Barbara Ziv, a psychiatrist based in Philadelphia walked the jury through six common myths she said people have about rape victims. Ziv was invited to testify by the trial’s prosecution and said she was not informed of the case’s facts before her testimony. She has testified in more than 200 cases, including in the trial of Bill Cosby in 2018.
“One of the reasons why I’m allowed to testify in this court … about sexual trauma and victim behavior is because people come to assess sexual assault with preconceived notions that are usually wrong,” Ziv told the jury.
The belief that rape occurs most commonly between strangers is false, Ziv said, adding that 85% of all sex assault cases are perpetuated by someone who knows the victim. People also wrongly assume sexual assault victims resist their assailants.
“This idea that women respond to sexual assault verbally, by screaming, yelling, hitting, punching, biting – although that happens, it’s rare,” Ziv said.
Another myth, she said, contradicts Weinstein’s argument that the sexual relationship he had with the women represented in the trial was consensual because they maintained contact with him after the alleged assaults.
Earlier this week, Weinstein’s lawyers showed the jury a series of emails and texts from the women that suggested they continued to have warm relations with him. One message showed a woman reminiscing with Weinstein about earlier encounters and asking him if he could meet her in London.
“It is common – it is, in fact, the norm – to have contact with [the assailant],” Ziv told the jury. “That contact can range from text messages to email exchanges, to continuing to have a relationship with them or developing a relationship with them.”
Ziv explained the psychological complexity of sexual assault – which, Ziv noted, is the most unreported crime – often stems from a victim’s inability to process trauma and a tendency to blame themselves for the assault. She noted that for many victims hiding the assault is preferred to the perceived consequences of reporting.
“Most individuals think: ‘I can put it behind me, I can put it in a box. I don’t want it to get worse,’” Ziv said. But, ultimately, she said: “They can’t.”
The case continues.
