'The unthinkable was happening,' Weinstein accuser says of alleged 2006 sex assault

NEW YORK (AP) — Five years after she first told her story to a jury, one of Harvey Weinstein 's accusers testified anew Wednesday that he held her down on a bed and forced oral sex on her after she told him: “No, no — it’s not going to happen.”

“The unthinkable was happening," Miriam Haley testified, dabbing her eyes as she recalled the alleged July 2006 assault.

Weinstein, sitting between his lawyers, shook his head as she spoke. The 73-year-old former Hollywood honcho has pleaded not guilty and denies sexually assaulting anyone.

Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi, is the first of Weinstein's accusers to testify at his rape retrial. It's happening because New York's highest court overturned his 2020 conviction.

Haley testified at the original trial, sometimes breaking into sobs. Her demeanor Wednesday was calm, if briefly tearful, as she answered prosecutors’ graphic questions about the alleged assault.

While much of her account mirrored her earlier testimony, there were some additional details.

She recalled Weinstein asking, "Don’t you think we’re much closer now?” after either the alleged assault or a subsequent occasion when she says she had unwanted, but not forced, sex with him.

She also recalled telling him after the second encounter, “You know you can’t keep doing this.”

Weinstein's attorneys haven’t yet had their chance to question Haley and potentially try to poke holes in her account. The defense has argued that all of Weinstein’s accusers consented to sexual encounters with him in hopes of getting work in show business.

Born in Finland and raised in Sweden, Haley, 48, is a former entertainment producer now working in advertising. She met Weinstein through a mutual connection.

Haley was briefly a production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show “Project Runway” and had a series of interactions with him that were sometimes inappropriate and suggestive, but other times professional and polite, she told jurors over two days of testimony so far.

She insisted she was only looking for professional opportunity — not sex or romance — with the then-powerful producer of such Oscar winners as “Shakespeare in Love” and “Gangs of New York.”

Haley said she accepted an invitation to visit Weinstein's Manhattan apartment one early evening because it would have been odd to decline — she was due to fly on his company's dime to Los Angeles the next day to see a premiere of the company's film “Clerks II."

After she and Weinstein briefly chatted on his living room sofa, he lunged to kiss her, she testified. She said she leaped up and rebuffed him, but he grabbed her and forcibly backed her into a bedroom.

Then, Haley said, he pinned her down on a bed and performed oral sex on her, ignoring her pleas that she didn't want it.

Afterward, she felt shocked, disgusted and humiliated. She and two of her friends testified that she soon told them that Weinstein had sexually assaulted her.

But Haley said she didn't call police because she feared getting in immigration trouble for having worked on “Project Runway” while on a tourist visa.

Haley said she agreed to meet Weinstein at a Manhattan hotel a few weeks after the alleged assault, expecting to talk in the lobby and hoping “to navigate the whole situation in a way that would make me feel better about myself and would have the most upside to me.”

She was directed instead to his room, where he promptly steered her onto the bed, she testified. She said she didn't want sex but didn't physically resist because she felt stupid for agreeing to meet him.

Still, “I made it clear at all occasions when he made advances that I didn’t want to go there,” she said.

Haley didn't cut off contact with Weinstein. Over the next few months and years, she sometimes called Weinstein and sent cordial emails to him and his assistant, from whom she also asked for a plane ticket to London, according to testimony and documents.

In the messages, she talked show business, asked for work and signed off with such phrases as “lots of love,” an expression she told jurors she used liberally. In a February 2007 letter that wasn't seen at the first trial, she told Weinstein she'd "love you forever… and ever…” if he invested in an online TV show idea of hers.

Haley testified that she addressed Weinstein warmly to try to win his professional backing, nothing else, and that she “suppressed a lot of things" in order to cope.

At the first trial, Weinstein's lawyers emphasized Haley’s continued exchanges with him. This time, prosecutors delved into those contacts more extensively, perhaps seeking to blunt them as an attack line for the defense.

Weinstein's retrial includes charges related to Haley and another accuser from the original trial, Jessica Mann. Mann alleges that Weinstein raped her in 2013.

He’s also being tried, for the first time, on an allegation of forcing oral sex on former model Kaja Sokola in 2006.

Mann and Sokola also are expected to testify.

The Associated Press generally does not name people who allege they have been sexually assaulted unless they give permission for their names to be used. Haley, Mann and Sokola have done so.

Miriam Haley, an accuser testifying at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial, returns to the courtroom after a break in New York, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in New York. (Michael Nagle/Pool Photo via AP)

Miriam Haley, an accuser testifying at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial, leaves the courtroom during a break in New York, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)

Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in New York. (Sarah Yenesel/Pool Photo via AP)

Miriam Haley, right, an accuser testifying at Harvey Weinstein's rape trial, leaves the courtroom during a break in New York, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Mimi Haley walks outside Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, April 30, 2025 in New York. (Curtis Means/Pool Photo via AP)

NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.

The strike was taking place at The Mount Sinai Hospital and two of its satellite campuses, with picket lines forming. The other affected hospitals are NewYork-Presbyterian and Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx.

About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to New York State Nurses Association.

“After months of bargaining, management refused to make meaningful progress on core issues that nurses have been fighting for: safe staffing for patients, healthcare benefits for nurses, and workplace violence protections,” the union said in a statement issued Monday. “Management at the richest hospitals in New York City are threatening to discontinue or radically cut nurses’ health benefits.”

The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.

The hospitals involved have been hiring temporary nurses to try and fill the labor gap during the walkout, and said in a statement during negotiations that they would “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions.” Montefiore posted a message assuring patients that appointments would be kept.

“NYSNA’s leaders continue to double down on their $3.6 billion in reckless demands, including nearly 40% wage increases, and their troubling proposals like demanding that a nurse not be terminated if found to be compromised by drugs or alcohol while on the job," Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said Monday after the strike had started. "We remain resolute in our commitment to providing safe and seamless care, regardless of how long the strike may last.”

New York-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption,” but said in a statement that it has taken steps to ensure patients receive the care they need.

"We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the statement said.

The work stoppage is occurring at multiple hospitals simultaneously, but each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other hospitals across the city and in its suburbs reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.

The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.

Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents like a an incident last week, when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.

The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.

The nonprofit hospitals involved in the negotiations say they’ve been working to improve staffing levels, but say the union’s demands overall are too costly.

Nurses voted to authorize the strike last month.

Both New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Zohran Mamdani had expressed concern about the possibility of the strike. As the strike deadline neared, Mamdani urged both sides to keep negotiating and reach a deal that “both honors our nurses and keeps our hospitals open.”

“Our nurses kept this city alive through its hardest moments. Their value is not negotiable,” Mamdani said.

State Attorney General Letitia James voiced similar support, saying "nurses put their lives on the line every day to keep New Yorkers healthy. They should never be forced to choose between their own safety, their patients’ well-being, and a fair contract.”

The last major nursing strike in the city was only three years ago, in 2023. That work stoppage, at Mount Sinai and Montefiore, was short, lasting three days. It resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at those hospitals.

It also led to promised staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.

Nurses strike outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

Nurses strike outside Mount Sinai West Hospital, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

FILE - A medical worker transports a patient at Mount Sinai Hospital, April 1, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)