After Harvey Weinstein’s New York ra-pe conviction was overturned, a woman who accused him of se-xual assault expressed concerns about testifying again if he is re-tried.
Mimi Haley claimed she felt “sick to my stomach” when she learned a court had overturned the former Hollywood power player’s sentence.
“People really don’t know what I had to go through and what the other women had to go through,” Haley told reporters of Weinstein’s 2020 trial.
“It’s grueling, it’s hard… you’re living in fear for years… and then you’re getting harassed.
“There’s so much stuff that people don’t see that I had to live with.”
In 2017, bombshell claims surfaced against the Oscar-winning producer, kicking off the #MeToo movement, which empowered women to fight back against workplace sexual harassment.
Weinstein, 72, was convicted in 2020 of raping and sexually assaulting ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Haley in 2006. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
On Thursday, New York’s highest court found that the trial judge erred in accepting testimony from women who were allegedly harmed by Weinstein but were not identified in the allegations against him.
According to sources, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has signaled that it would seek a retrial, which will almost definitely need Haley to testify again.
If Weinstein is retried, Haley believes he should be convicted despite the lack of evidence from so many other women.
“The truth doesn’t change,” she said.
“The evidence is still there, so I don’t see why it would be another result.”
Haley said she was still processing the development, but that she would consider taking the witness stand again.
“I definitely don’t want to actually go through that again, but for the sake of keeping going and doing the right thing — because it is what happened — I would consider it,” she said.
Thursday’s ruling does not affect a separate 16-year sentence for rape handed down in California, and Weinstein remains behind bars.