Model Disputes Account of Weinstein Accuser

'Never happened,' says Claudia Salinas
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 10, 2020 2:12 PM CST
'Never Happened': Model Testifies in Weinstein Defense
Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for his rape trial in New York, Monday, Feb. 10, 2020.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

In the strongest defense testimony yet, a Mexican model and actress denied a Harvey Weinstein accuser’s claim that she stood by and did nothing while the once-powerful movie mogul groped the accuser in a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013. “Never happened," Claudia Salinas told jurors Monday at Weinstein’s rape trial in New York City, per the AP. Testifying last week, model Lauren Marie Young said Salinas closed the door behind her and Weinstein as they went into the bathroom, where she said he stripped off his clothes, grabbed her breast, and masturbated. Young said Salinas “was standing right there” when Weinstein was finished and she managed to get out. “If I had done that, I would remember that,” Salinas testified. “I would never close the door on anybody.”

Salinas, now 38 and working as a social media influencer, took the witness stand as the defense called witnesses for a third day after more than two weeks of prosecution testimony. She said she met Weinstein in 2012 while an aspiring actress and never had a romantic relationship with him, adding that he had a “very strong personality" and "at times, he wasn’t nice to me.” Among the prosecution witnesses were six women, including Young, who say the once-powerful Hollywood boss subjected them to vile sexual behavior. Jurors also heard Monday from the former roommate of the woman Weinstein is on trial for allegedly raping. Talita Maia said that the woman spoke highly of Weinstein and once called him her “spiritual soulmate."

(More Harvey Weinstein stories.)

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