Prosecution rests at Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial: A former child actor says his career was destroyed by the mogul after he accused him of sexual harassment.
Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to rape charges. (Reuters)
A former child actor accused Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual harassment on Wednesday as opening statements began in his trial at Manhattan’s Southern District Courthouse.
Rashid Hardy, 41, told jurors that the former Miramax producer began “raping on” him during his work for the 1989 movie “The Lost Boys,” a film about an all-male juvenile gang in the late 1970s, when they were all 12 years old.
“If you can hear me, you can’t get raped,” Hardy told the jury during opening statements, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Weinstein faces three indictments in Manhattan. He is charged with rape and sexual assault, as well as sexual abuse and forcible sex acts against women in the early 2000s.
Hardy testified that Weinstein made a sexual advance toward him in a bar in Los Angeles in 2005, with Hardy present, then continued to harass him in the weeks before and after their encounter. In an emotional account, Hardy said Weinstein took him to his hotel room in New York, and after they arrived, Weinstein offered Hardy a tour of Hollywood, asking what kind of movies he starred in. When Hardy said “not a great deal,” Weinstein handed him a business card that read “Weinstein Development.”
Hardy said Weinstein then invited him to his hotel room for a meeting the next day, at which time Weinstein said “you know what, this is not going to matter” and asked if Hardy wanted a massage. Hardy said he declined the offer, but added he was a massage therapist and “I know a lot of ways of getting a massage.”
The judge in the assault case
