Shortly after taking the stand on Wednesday to testify for the prosecution in Harvey Weinstein’s ongoing sex crimes trial, social media influencer Claudia Salinas strongly denied the claim that she helped the fallen mogul in her predatory behavior, an allegation brought against her by one of her accusers. .
“Harvey Weinstein was a business acquaintance, that’s all he ever was,” Salinas told The Daily Beast via text Wednesday night. “I certainly wasn’t asked to be dragged into either of his trials and that was the last place I wanted to be. That said, I always told the truth in both trials The Jane Doe 2 allegations didn’t stand up to cross-examination because it’s patently fictional.
Mexican model Claudia Salinas will face Harvey Weinstein trial after court revelation
The Mexican model and actress has now testified in both of Weinstein’s sex crimes trials, each time denying luring and trapping one of the disgraced Hollywood producer’s accusers in a hotel bathroom in 2013. Earlier this week, a woman identified in court as Jane Doe 2 told jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court that Salinas invited her to the Montague Hotel in February 2013 under the guise of meeting Weinstein to discuss future job opportunities. .
Instead, Jane Doe 2 alleges she was taken to Weinstein’s hotel room before Salinas cornered her in a bathroom with the overturned titan. Once inside the bathroom, she said Weinstein groped her and masturbated in front of her before ejaculating on the floor.
The allegations mirror those she made during Weinstein’s 2020 New York trial, where the 70-year-old was convicted of similar sex crimes. In that trial, where Jane Doe 2 was an unindicted witness called to help prosecutors establish Weinstein’s predatory pattern, Salinas also denied the allegations when she testified on behalf of the defense.
“This is my second and hopefully my last experience as a witness. It wasn’t exactly pleasant but I had to testify, I had to defend myself,” Salinas explained to the Beast. “My name has been used in a derogatory way. Jane Doe 2 fiction kept changing and hurting me.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to several charges against him, including rape, after prosecutors alleged he sexually assaulted five women between 2003 and 2014. Prosecutors allege that for years Weinstein used his influence to Hollywood to prey on young women and ensure their silence. Weinstein’s defense, however, insists that these allegations are false and that these women knowingly engage in “transactional sex” with the former producer for their own career gain.
Accuser: Mel Gibson was the first person I ‘told’ about Weinstein’s assault
Salinas, who has not accused Weinstein of any wrongdoing, told jurors on Wednesday that she first met the former producer in 2003 while having dinner with her mother in New York.
The two maintained a connection and she noted that she even acted in a few of his films, including Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. Like Jane Doe 2, Salinas said he met the budding actress in 2012 and hit it off immediately.
“We became friends, Facebook friends. I don’t remember if we hung out,” Salinas said.
Although she admitted she remembered meeting Jane Doe 2 at the Montage Hotel in February 2013, she insisted during cross-examination on Wednesday that she had not walked into a hotel room nor trapped Jane Doe 2 in a bathroom.
“Have you ever stood outside a bathroom while Mr. Weinstein raped someone inside?” defense attorney Mark Werksman asked Salinas.
“Absolutely not,” she replied.
But Jane Doe 2 emotionally recounted a different version of events to the jury, explaining how she was frozen in fear after Salinas allegedly trapped her in the hotel room bathroom.
“She was a girl I thought was my new friend,” Jane Doe 2 told the jury on Monday. “So she gave me that look as she closed the door…I just couldn’t believe she would do this to me.” To another daughter. Because there is a girl code. You don’t do that.
After the assault, Jane Doe 2 said she gave Salinas “an evil look” as she quickly excited the bathroom – and the model didn’t say anything to her. She gave, according to Jane Doe 2, “a smirk…like she’d roped something to me.”
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