Weinstein Trial: 'I'm Being Raped,' Recalls 'Project Runway' Assistant

They got into a tug-of-war, she said — he was pulling at her and she was trying to push him away. It ended in the bedroom where, she added, she attempted to deflect him by anxiously announcing that she was on her period.

But that did not deter him, Miriam Haley testified on Monday at Weinstein’s rape trial. Instead, she said, he pushed her onto a bed, held her down and forcibly performed oral sex on her.

“I’m being raped,” Haley recalled thinking. She added, “I was in so much shock at the time that I just checked out.”

In recounting the alleged assault in July 2006, Haley became the second accuser to take the stand against Weinstein at the trial in Lower Manhattan. She recently legally changed her name from Mimi Haleyi.

Last week, actress Annabella Sciorra, best known for her role in “The Sopranos,” told the jury that the producer shoved his way into her own apartment in New York and raped her in the winter months of 1993 or 1994.

In all, six women are testifying against Weinstein at the trial, which is widely seen as a watershed moment in the #MeToo movement. Weinstein has not been charged with raping Haley, but instead faces counts of criminal sexual act and predatory sexual assault.

He is accused of a total of five felony counts, including rape and predatory sexual assault, for his alleged behavior toward another woman, Jessica Mann, in 2013. He could get life in prison if convicted of the last charge.

The trial has delved into the thorny issues of consent and sexual dynamics in the film industry. Prosecutors have described how Weinstein, 67, used his power to coerce women into sexual encounters.

Weinstein’s lawyers maintain the producer’s relationships with Haley, now 42, and the other women were consensual. The lawyers said she continued to see Weinstein long after the alleged attack and had bragged to her friends about her friendship with him.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times .