Harvey Weinstein, 69, is again accused of sexual misconduct, this time by Hayley Gripp, a certified advocate for children with trauma and special needs, the New York Post reported on Saturday, citing court papers.
The plaintiff, who refused to be interviewed by the NYP, claimed Weinstein committed “attempted rape” in 2012 when she was a 19-year-old aspiring actress. According to Gripp, she was drinking coffee at the Beverly Hilton hotel before casting, when she was approached by an unnamed Weinstein associate, who invited her to have breakfast with influential industry people. Gripp was offered the opportunity of meeting a “big producer” said to be worth skipping the casting.
When the young woman entered the room, she was offered alcohol, according to the affidavit. When it was mentioned that she was 19, Gripp was told that, “It’s rude not to accept a drink from someone who feeds you and shows you hospitality.” Gripp claimed that she then lost consciousness for a while and when she woke up, she realized that Weinstein, earlier introduced to her as “Dom,” was pushing her onto a coffee table.
Gripp said that “Weinstein’s fingers were inside her vagina” and he asked her to pretend as if he would has been “someone like Zac Efron.”
“Weinstein then held Ms. Gripp down with one hand, took Ms. Gripp’s genital fluids, and rubbed it on his exposed genitalia, proceeding to masturbate with his other hand. To escape his hold, Ms. Gripp began flailing her arms and, in doing so, broke her acrylic nail against the coffee table. Ms. Gripp then stabbed Weinstein on the bottom part of his scrotum with her sharp broken nail,” according to the testimony.
According to the court paper, “Weinstein let out a quiet scream and grabbed her hand, inadvertently causing her nail to move up and inward, deeper into his scrotum.” Photos of Weinstein’s reportedly deformed genitals were presented during a court hearing for Weinstein after one of his accusers, actress Jessica Mann, claimed that they looked "deformed" or "intersex" when he allegedly abused her in 2013.
Gripp escaped from the wounded Weinstein and in an encounter outside with the latter's associate, Gripp, who has Tourette's syndrome, was told that she would be put “in a mental hospital” if she went public with her story.
The plaintiff said that she didn’t know who her abuser was until the sex scandal gathered pace in 2017 and she saw him on the news. According to her lawyer, Eric Lerner, Gripp did not bring legal charges at the time because of the “delay in the discovery of Weinstein’s identity" and his injuries.
Gripp, later diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, seeks compensation and is determined to “fully cooperate with the Los Angeles Police Department or any other agency regarding an investigation or prosecution against Harvey Weinstein,” her second attorney, Christa Riggins, said.
“Ms. Gripp did not report this crime to police for the same reason that nearly 80 percent of rapes and sexual assaults go unreported. At this time, Ms. Gripp does not intend to file criminal charges because Harvey Weinstein has received what amounts to a lifetime sentence and is unable to abuse another woman,” she told the New York Post.
In January, a US court approved a plan to liquidate the Weinstein Co film production company, which went bankrupt three years ago, with the distribution of $17.1 million among nearly 50 plaintiffs who brought cases against Weinstein over sexual abuse.
The long running legal fight to expose the abusive Hollywood boss started in 2017 after numerous victims testified under oath that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them, including actresses Angelina Jolie, Uma Thurman, Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd. In February 2020, a court convicted him of multiple third-degree rapes and several other forms of sexual misconduct. The disgraced film producer was sentenced to 23 years in a New York State Prison. At the same time, the jury acquitted him on three other counts, including a more serious rape charge, with which he had faced imprisonment up to life. His lawyers observed that Weinstein may not survive his sentence due to his age and poor health.
Weinstein, who, according to his lawyers, suffers serious health problems after his imprisonment, denies the charges, according to his lawyer, Imran H. Ansari.
