Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
A massage therapist broke down on the stand on Tuesday as she described how Harvey Weinstein groped and masturbated in front of her after a 2010 appointment—before offering her a book deal and insisting they were “close friends” after the assault.
“He tried to normalize what he did to me. He made me feel like it was strange for making it awkward like masturbation is something everybody does. Basically humiliating me, like my reaction wasn’t normal,” the woman told Los Angeles Superior Court jurors on Wednesday afternoon.
The woman, identified in court as Jane Doe 3, said the assault began after Weinstein’s massage session inside his Montage Hotel room when she went into the bathroom to wash her hands. Suddenly, she said, the movie titan barged in naked and began masturbating—even after she told him to put his clothes back on and stressed that “this is not appropriate.”