Accuser in LA case testifies at Weinstein’s NY rape trial

NEW YORK — The final accuser at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial takes the witness stand, where she is expected to detail how he groped her in a hotel bathroom as prosecutors push to show the once-powerful movie mogul had a habit of preying on women.

Model and actress Lauren Marie Young alleges Weinstein stripped naked, masturbated in front of her and groped her breast in the bathroom of his Beverly Hills hotel room just days before the Oscars in February 2013.

“I was excited. I got ready. I put on my best dress,” the 30-year-old Young testifies today about first connecting with Weinstein at the hotel. “I was excited to network and pitch my ideas.”

At some point Weinstein said, “let’s finish this conversation upstairs,” explaining that he had to present an award to Quentin Tarantino, she adds before her testimony was interrupted by a lunch break.

Prosecutors have said a female friend of Weinstein’s who was in the hotel there shut the door and trapped Young in the bathroom with him.

Young is the third of three women prosecutors are calling to bolster their effort to portray him as a serial offender even though their accusations aren’t part of the underlying criminal charges at issue in the New York City trial.

Weinstein’s New York trial involves just two allegations: that he raped a woman in March 2013 and forced oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006. Weinstein, 67, has insisted any sexual encounters were consensual.

— AP