The woman whose testimony led a New York jury toconvictdisgraced movie mogulHarvey Weinsteinof criminal sex act says that after learning the verdict, “I just sat down and I started crying.”
“It was just a huge sense of relief — just the relief that the jury got it, that they believed me and I was heard,”Miriam “Mimi” Haleyisaid Tuesday onGood Morning America.
Haleyi — who has since legally changed her name to Hayley — testified that in 2006, Weinstein forced oral sex on her in his Manhattan apartment. She was one of two women around whom prosecutors built their indictment charging Weinstein with felony criminal sexual assault and four other charges.
The other woman, aspiring actress Jessica Mann, testified about a 2013 incident at a Manhattan hotel that led Weinstein to be found guilty of third-degree rape.
Weinstein, 67, was acquitted Monday on three other counts of predatory sexual assault.He faces up to 29 years in prisonwhen he is sentenced March 11.
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The guilty verdict in her case “gives me hope that we’re making progress,” she said.
STEVEN HIRSCH/POOL/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“I just feel that we’re being educated about the reality of sexual assaults and sexual assault victims, and what that many times involves, and that a lot of sexual assault victims do know their attacker, and they have some sort of relationship to that person, and that brings with it a whole other layer of emotional confusion that you need to process through,” she said.
“And I think that’s what we need to realize … I think we are getting rid of a lot of outdated ideas about these kinds of assaults.”
Weinstein still facesadditional charges of sexual assaultin California that were filed as his New York trial began on January 6. He has not yet entered a plea to those charges.
source: people.com
