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Weinstein's New York Trial Was Just the First. He Still Faces One in LA.

Harvey Weinstein, the once-powerful film producer, could be facing a steep prison sentence after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York on Monday, and his legal travails are far from over.

Weinstein's New York Trial Was Just the First. He Still Faces One in LA.

Weinstein will soon return to a familiar scene: a criminal courtroom, this one in Los Angeles. There, he faces charges stemming from accusations made by two women: an Italian model and actress who says that he raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel, and a second model who says he trapped her in a hotel bathroom and masturbated while he groped her. The attacks, prosecutors say, happened within about a day of each other in 2013.

More than 90 women have come forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, including harassment and rape. The accusations ignited a global #MeToo movement, with the careers of many other influential men being toppled over similar complaints about workplace behavior.

Weinstein has said that any sexual activity he engaged in was consensual.

The New York jury found him guilty of two felony sex crimes — rape and criminal sexual act — after a trial at which six women testified that he had sexually assaulted them. He was acquitted on three other counts, including the two most serious charges against him: being a sexual predator.

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He was remanded to custody after the verdict was announced and faces a potential prison term of five to 29 years when he is sentenced March 11.

The Los Angeles district attorney, Jackie Lacey, is the second prosecutor to bring charges against the Hollywood producer, who is also the subject of criminal investigations in Dublin and London.

In California, Weinstein, 67, is charged with one felony count each of rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint. He faces up to 28 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.

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New York prison officials would release him to the custody of Los Angeles authorities for the duration of a trial there. If he were convicted in Los Angeles, he would serve his California sentence after serving his sentence in New York.

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Lacey said at a news conference last month that Weinstein had “used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then commit violent crimes against them.” A date has not been scheduled for his arraignment in Los Angeles.

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One of the accusers in the Los Angeles case is Lauren Young, a model and actress who was also one of six women to testify at Weinstein’s trial in Manhattan. Young and two other women were allowed to testify in New York to demonstrate his “prior bad acts,” or what prosecutors said was a pattern of abuse.

The trial in Los Angeles is also expected to include testimony from Filipina-Italian model Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an active case.

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., declined to charge Weinstein in 2015 when accusations of sexual abuse first emerged against him.

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Battilana Gutierrez, who made the accusations, told police in New York that the producer had groped her breast and slid his hand up her skirt during a business meeting at an office in the city. With the help of detectives, she later recorded Weinstein apologizing for his behavior and offering what seemed like an admission.

“I’m used to that,” Weinstein said on the recording, a copy of which was obtained by The New Yorker, adding, “I won’t do it again.”

Vance was harshly criticized for not prosecuting Weinstein at the time, but Battilana Guiterrez’s accusation is expected to be an important element in the Los Angeles case.

Although Los Angeles prosecutors could not charge Weinstein based on Battilana Guiterrez’s accusation because the events at issue did not happen in their jurisdiction, they hope her testimony will show a pattern of abuse. It is unclear how many other witnesses whose testimony could be used to establish such a pattern may be called.

The second accuser in the Los Angeles case is an Italian model and actress who has not been identified in court documents. She told prosecutors that she encountered Weinstein at a film festival in February 2013 and was shocked when he showed up at her door at the Mr. C luxury hotel in Beverly Hills.

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According to a criminal complaint, Weinstein forced oral sex on her, then intercourse.

“He grabbed me by the hair and forced me to do something I did not want to do,” she told The Los Angeles Times in 2017. “He then dragged me to the bathroom and forcibly raped me.” She also told the newspaper: “It was the most demeaning thing ever done to me by far. He made me feel like an object, like nothing, with all his power.”

About a day later, Feb. 19, 2013, Weinstein met with Young and a Mexican model, Claudia Salinas, at a lobby bar in the Montage Beverly Hills. Young testified at Weinstein’s trial in Manhattan that she believed she was going to a business meeting to discuss a script she had been working on.

Suddenly, she said, Weinstein said he had to prepare for an event with director Quentin Tarantino, and he told the women to accompany him to a suite at the hotel. Young said that she followed Weinstein into a bathroom as they talked and that Salinas shut the door, trapping her.

Salinas, who testified for the defense at the New York trial, denied being there and trapping Young in the bathroom with Weinstein.

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Young said that Weinstein blocked the exit by opening a shower door. He then turned on the water, quickly undressed and stepped in and out of the shower, she said.

“I just couldn’t believe what was happening to me,” she testified. “I started realizing: I’m trapped.”

Young testified that Weinstein unzipped her dress — pulling it down, she said, despite her objections — and told her: “No, we are just going to have a talk here. How am I going to know if you can act?”

Weinstein, she said, started to masturbate, gripping and pinching her breast and squinting at her as she was pushed up against the sink. At some point, she said, he tried to touch her genitals. He ejaculated into a towel, she said, and then left the bathroom.

Young said that she told two friends about the attack but that she did not report it to police, adding that she feared Weinstein’s power.

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Young said that she met with his assistant the next day to discuss opportunities in the entertainment industry but that she ignored later calls from Weinstein and his company.

“I didn’t want anything to do with any of them,” she testified.

(STORY CAN END HERE. OPTIONAL MATERIAL FOLLOWS.)

Dave Ring, a lawyer for the unidentified Italian actress, said that the Los Angeles case would be less complicated than the New York case for a jury. The women, he said, did not maintain relationships with the producer after the episodes they have described.

In New York, the two main accusers — Miriam Haley, who said Weinstein had forcibly performing oral sex on her in 2006, and Jessica Mann, who said he raped her in a midtown Manhattan hotel room in 2013 — continued to communicate with Weinstein and had sex with him after what they said were his attacks.

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“There isn’t going to be any history of relationships,” Ring said of his client. “Not a single email that exists between her and him.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .

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