Weinstein accuser had 'zero interest' in sex with him, friend testifies

NEW YORK (AP) — Friends of one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers testified Thursday that the woman told them long ago that Weinstein sexually assaulted her.

Adding a new perspective to the ex-movie mogul’s retrial, one witness said she’d once suggested that accuser Miriam Haley date the movie mogul, but Haley balked.

“She had zero interest in dating him or sleeping with him,” witness Christine Pressman said, describing Haley as “distraught” when she later disclosed the alleged sexual assault.

Some of the emerging details show how this trial is a reprise — but not an exact repeat — of the 2020 trial in which Weinstein was initially convicted of rape and sexual assault. That conviction has since been overturned.

Pressman didn't testify at the original trial. Prosecutors brought her in this time to support Haley's allegations, but Weinstein's lawyers quizzed her about whether Haley in fact had a willing sexual relationship with the Oscar-winning studio boss.

“Never,” Pressman insisted.

Haley is a former production assistant on the Weinstein-produced television show “Project Runway.”

Weinstein, 73, maintains that he has never sexually assaulted or raped anyone. His lawyers argue that his accusers agreed to sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer in hopes of getting ahead in the entertainment business.

Weinstein was transformed in 2017 from a Hollywood tycoon into a #MeToo movement villain after a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public.

He was convicted in 2020 of raping Jessica Mann, who was once an aspiring actor, and forcing oral sex on Haley. New York’s highest court threw out the conviction last year, finding that the original trial judge had allowed prejudicial testimony.

The retrial includes an additional allegation of forcible oral sex on a different woman, former model Kaja Sokola. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

None of the accusers has testified yet, but two of Haley's friends took the stand Thursday to attest that she told them about the alleged July 2006 sexual assault around that time.

Elizabeth Entin, Haley's former roommate, said a shaken Haley told her that month that Weinstein had forcibly performed oral sex on her. Echoing her testimony at the first trial, Entin said she suggested Haley call a lawyer, but her friend seemed disinclined.

Pressman, however, said she advised against turning to police when the Finnish-born Haley made a similar disclosure to her in August or September of 2006.

“I said, ‘Harvey Weinstein is the king of New York. He’s extremely powerful. You are not. You’re here on a tourist visa. Just let it go,’” the former model, musician and actor recalled. She teared up as she added that she now knows her guidance “was wrong.”

Under questioning from Weinstein lawyer Jennifer Bonjean, Pressman acknowledged that at some point before the alleged assault, she suggested Haley date Weinstein. Pressman later explained that she'd been frustrated by her friend's taste in men — guys who were lanky, cerebral “and broke,” as Pressman put it.

Haley rejected the notion of dating Weinstein, she said. But Bonjean went on to ask whether Pressman knew that Haley “had consensual sex with Mr. Weinstein.” Pressman said her friend did no such thing.

Haley testified at the original trial that she said “no, no, no” during the alleged assault. A few weeks later, she didn’t protest when Weinstein pulled her toward a bed and had sex with her, she said, explaining that she simply “went numb.”

After jurors left for the day, Weinstein's lawyers sought a mistrial, saying Pressman's testimony was prejudicial. They were turned down by Judge Curtis Farber, who's now overseeing the case.

While there are many similarities to the first trial, there also stand to be plenty of changes.

Entin found herself answering questions about what she has said and written about the first trial itself, such as describing her participation as her “15 minutes of fame.” Entin said it was a joke.

And she wasn’t asked about a recollection that made for a memorable and rare light moment at the first trial — a time when she said Weinstein showed up uninvited to the apartment she shared with Haley and was chased around by Entin’s pet Chihuahua.

Farber had indicated he didn’t think having Entin describe the purported episode was fair game for the trial.

The Associated Press does not identify people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be named. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.

Attorney Diana Fabi Samson arrives for Harvey Weinstein's retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Attornesy Diana Fabi Samson and Arthur Aidala speak outside Harvey Weinstein's retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

Harvey Weinstein appears for his retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

Harvey Weinstein appears for his retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)

Harvey Weinstein appears for his retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, Pool)

Harvey Weinstein appears for his retrial in Manhattan Criminal Court, Thursday, April 24, 2025, in New York. (Spencer Platt/Pool Photo via AP)

Fifteen men have died by court-ordered execution so far this year in the U.S., and 12 other people are scheduled to be put to death in eight states during the remainder of 2025.

Glen Rogers is set to die by lethal injection in Florida on Thursday, followed by scheduled executions in Texas and Indiana on May 20 and Tennessee on May 22, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Other states with scheduled executions this year are Alabama, Mississippi, Ohio, and Oklahoma, though Ohio’s governor has been routinely postponing the actions as their dates near.

So far this year, executions have been carried out in Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas.

The most recent U.S. execution took place May 1, when Jeffrey Hutchinson, 62, died by lethal injection in Florida for the 1998 shotgun slayings of his girlfriend and her three young children.

A look at the executions scheduled for the rest of the year, by state:

Rogers, 62, was convicted in the 1995 stabbing death of Tina Marie Cribbs near Tampa. Rogers, who has said he killed many people around the country, was also sentenced to death in California for another woman’s murder.

Anthony Wainwright, 54, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on June 10 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Carmen Gayheart in 1994. Gayheart was abducted from a grocery store parking lot in Lake City, Florida.

Matthew Johnson's execution is set for Tuesday.

In 2012, Johnson walked into a gas station with a plastic bottle filled with bleach and continued behind the sales counter where a woman was working. He took cigarettes, lighters and cash before pouring the bleach on her and setting her on fire and walking out. The worker died later at a hospital as a result of her injuries.

Benjamin Ritchie is scheduled to be executed Tuesday in the fatal shooting of Beech Grove Police Officer Bill Toney in September 2000. According to court records, Ritchie jumped out of a stolen van after a police pursuit. Toney was chasing him when Ritchie turned and shot him four times.

A jury convicted Ritchie of murder and other offenses in 2002. Ritchie has unsuccessfully challenged the convictions at the state and federal level. His latest motion asked permission to raise arguments that his attorney was ineffective because the lawyer failed to investigate whether Ritchie suffered from fetal alcohol spectrum disorders as well as childhood lead exposure.

Tennessee’s Supreme Court has set execution dates for three inmates this year.

Oscar Smith, 75, is scheduled to be executed May 22. Smith was convicted of fatally stabbing and shooting his estranged wife and her teenage sons at their Nashville home in 1989.

Smith was within minutes of being executed in 2022 when Gov. Bill Lee issued a sudden reprieve. Smith’s attorney had requested the results of required purity and potency tests for the lethal injection drugs that were to be used on him. It turned out a test was never done.

An independent review later found that none of the drugs prepared for the seven inmates executed in Tennessee since 2018 had been fully tested.

The Tennessee Department of Correction issued a new execution protocol in late December that will utilize the single drug pentobarbital.

Byron Black, 69, is scheduled to be executed on Aug. 5. Black was convicted in 1989 of three counts of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of his girlfriend, Angela Clay, and her two daughters.

Harold Nichols, 64, is scheduled to be executed on Dec. 11. Nichols was convicted of rape and first-degree felony murder in the 1988 death of Karen Pulley in Hamilton County.

Gregory Hunt, 65, is scheduled to die by nitrogen gas on June 10 for the 1988 beating death of Karen Lane. She was found dead in an apartment in Cordova that she shared with another woman. Hunt had been dating Lane for about one month before her death, according to court records.

Alabama last year became the first state to carry out an execution with nitrogen gas. Nitrogen has now been used in five executions — four in Alabama and one in Louisiana. The method involves using a gas mask to force a person to breathe pure nitrogen gas, depriving them of the oxygen needed to stay alive.

John Fitzgerald Hanson, 61, is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on June 12.

An Oklahoma board has denied clemency for Hanson, who was convicted of killing a Tulsa woman in 1999.

Hanson was transferred to Oklahoma custody in March by federal officials following through on President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to more actively support the death penalty.

Mississippi’s longest-serving death row inmate is set to be executed on June 25.

Richard Gerald Jordan, 78, was sentenced to death in 1976 for kidnapping and killing a woman. Jordan has filed multiple death sentence appeals, the most recent of which was denied in October.

Mississippi Supreme Court records show Jordan kidnapped Edwina Marter and shot her to death in a forest in Harrison County. He then called her husband, falsely claimed she was safe and asked for $25,000.

Mississippi law allows death sentences to be carried out using lethal injection, nitrogen gas, electrocution or firing squad.

Ohio has two executions set for later this year, with Timothy Coleman scheduled to die on Oct. 30 and Kareem Jackson scheduled to be executed on Dec. 10.

However, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine has been routinely postponing the actions as their dates approach. He did so in February, when he postponed into 2028 three executions scheduled for June, July and August of this year. DeWine has said publicly that he does not anticipate any further executions will happen on his watch as governor, which runs through 2026.

FILE - A guard stands in a tower at Indiana State Prison on Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Michigan City, Ind. (AP Photo/Erin Hooley, File)

This photo provided by Florida Department of Corrections shows death row inmate Glen Rogers. (Florida Department of Corrections via AP)