Harvey Weinstein faces new rape allegation in class action lawsuit against him
Three women have filed a new class action lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein on Friday, who is being investigated over many accounts of sexual assault. One of the accusers, Melissa Thompson, claims that the disgraced media mogul lured her into his hotel room and forcibly had intercourse with her in 2011.
According to her accounts, Thompson had met Weinstein to pitch her internet start-up, but during the meeting he started to caress her legs and promised to make a deal that afternoon if she met him for a drink at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in New York. It was when she was in the hotel room that he started forcing himself on her, reports CNN.
“Thompson was fighting back, but could not out-muscle him,” the lawsuit states. “Thompson closed her eyes, traumatized, praying for the assault to end.”
Thompson, who had also made a video recording in which she speaks about the incident, alleges that she had submitted the video evidence to the law firm Benjamin Brafman, seeking their help. However, what she did not realize at the time was that the firm was representing Weinstein.
In the suit, she accuses Weinstein's current attorney Ben Brafman and another attorney at his firm Alex Spiro of using deceptive tactics to get this video and audio evidences from her.
Larissa Gomes is another accuser in the class action lawsuit, and she accused the Miramax co-founder of cornering her in a hotel room in Toronto in 2000, before trying to coerce her into giving him a massage. He also asked to see her breasts, at which point she expressed her disinterest, enraging Weinstein.
“You know Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd were exactly where you are at one point,” Gomes quotes him as saying. “Look at them now. Ashley Judd had no problem f**king me.” Both actresses have also accused Weinstein of sexually harassing them.
When Gomes tried to leave by claiming “I think I should go now, my boyfriend is waiting for me, and he will be worried," Weinstein forcibly kissed her, before she could get away.
The third plaintiff, Caitlin Dulany, who is an actress, accuses Weinstein of sexually assaulting her at the Hotel du Cap in Cannes in 1996. Dulany claims that the Hollywood pariah had performed oral sex on her without consent and proceed to masturbate.
All three women are represented by Hagens Berman and the Armenta Law Firm, the very firm that also represents six other women that have filed a class action suit against Weinstein.