Harvey Weinstein was so “intimidating” while checking into a Midtown hotel in 2013 before he allegedly raped one of his accusers that a hotel worker made a note for security to check on his room.
Rothschild Capulong — who worked at the DoubleTree Hotel in Midtown, where ex-actress Jessica Mann claims she was raped by the once-powerful moviemaker on March 18, 2013 — testified at Weinstein’s rape trial that he remembered checking in Weinstein that morning.
Capulong, a former overnight manager at the Lexington Avenue hotel, said that day he was working at the front desk due to staffing issues and recalls checking Weinstein into the hotel for one day at around 10:30 a.m. under the pseudonym “Max Poster.”
“Mr. Weinstein had an imposing attitude at the time of check-in,” Capulong told Manhattan Supreme Court jurors, adding, “Basically he was trying to loom over and trying to rush the check-in process.”
A note under the reservation said that “celebrity Harvey Weinstein” was the actual guest, Capulong confirmed.
Capulong told the jury that he remembered a “slender and attractive” woman with Weinstein whose face he could not remember.
“From what I recall, they weren’t on the same page. It seemed like there was a discontent on one of the persons … the female,” he said.
He said the “body language of the woman companion” caused him to pay more attention to the encounter.
“Usually couples checking in are in a happy mood. When they checked in, they just weren’t,” Capulong said.
He described Weinstein’s tone of voice as “trying to rush me at check-in and intimidating at some point.”
When Weinstein and the woman left the front desk, “they were walking apart … Mr. Weinstein was guiding.”
Capulong said he made an end-of-shift note regarding Weinstein.
“I specifically wrote that security might [want to] come and check Mr. Weinstein at the room,” he said.
Mann, 34, a one-time aspiring actress, testified last Friday that she had been staying at the hotel and had a breakfast organized that morning with Weinstein, her agent and a pal.
Weinstein showed up early and called for her downstairs, where she saw him booking a room, Mann said.
She claimed she told Weinstein “we don’t need a room” before he took her up to the hotel and raped her.
The director of security at the hotel, Hector Castillo, testified Wednesday that Weinstein checked out of the hotel at 3:14 p.m. that day.
Castillo said “as far as” he knows, security was not called in regard to Weinstein that day.
Weinstein is charged with two counts of predatory sexual assault, two counts of rape and one count of criminal sex act stemming from allegations involving Mann, former “Project Runway” TV producer Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi and “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra.
The 67-year-old former powerbroker has claimed all of his sexual encounters were consensual.
He faces up to life in prison if convicted on the top charge.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMicGh0dHBzOi8vcGFnZXNpeC5jb20vMjAyMC8wMi8wNS9oYXJ2ZXktd2VpbnN0ZWluLXdhcy1pbnRpbWlkYXRpbmctdG8taG90ZWwtY2hlY2staW4tc3RhZmYtb24tZGF5LW9mLWFsbGVnZWQtcmFwZS_SAXRodHRwczovL3BhZ2VzaXguY29tLzIwMjAvMDIvMDUvaGFydmV5LXdlaW5zdGVpbi13YXMtaW50aW1pZGF0aW5nLXRvLWhvdGVsLWNoZWNrLWluLXN0YWZmLW9uLWRheS1vZi1hbGxlZ2VkLXJhcGUvYW1wLw?oc=5
2020-02-05 17:27:00Z
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