|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Edited by: TJVNews.com
It appears that the Harvey Weinstein trail of dread continues. An ex-model is now claiming that she was raped at the age of 19 by a former executive of Weinstein’s Miramax film production company, according to a recent report in the New York Post.
40 year old Sara Ziff claims that in 2001, Weinstein’s friend Fabrizio Lombardo lured her to a fake meeting at a posh New York City hotel where the alleged rape occurred, the Post reported. She said that at the time she was a model and an aspiring actress and Lombardo, who was the head of Miramax in Europe and Italy persuaded her to come to the Mercer Hotel in Manhattan under false pretenses to attend a meeting with both Harvey and Bob Weinstein, presumably about furthering her career. The Post also reported that the lawsuit that Ziff filed in Manhattan Supreme Court late on Thursday said the meeting never took place and it was there that she was sexually assaulted by Lombardo.
The court filing also starts that earlier on the same evening that the alleged rape took place, Lombardo invited Ziff to a Tribeca screening of the film, “Black Hawk Down” at the Miramax office. Present at the office was Weinstein and another young woman. The Post report indicated that Ziff is 20 years younger than Lombardo.
The suit also says that no substantive conversation took place between Weinstein and Ziff, other than the now disgraced movie mogul inviting her to eat some food that was in the office.
Court papers also claim, according to the Post report that upon the conclusion of the film, Lombardo extended an invitation to join him at the SoHo hotel for a drink. He also told Ziff that it was possible that Harvey Weinstein, the woman that Weinstein was with and Weinstein’s brother Bob would join them, the report indicated.
The Post reported that Ziff accepted the invitation as she perceived it as a career boosting opportunity if she could speak with the Weinstein brothers, according to the court papers that were filed.
Rather than going to the hotel bar of restaurant, Ziff alleges in the court filing that Lombardo led her directly to the penthouse of the hotel. She claims that she was uncomfortable in the surroundings and stayed near a window while smoking cigarettes, the Post reported. While in the penthouse, Ziff says that she “kept her distance” from Lombardo, the court filings allege.
The filing also claims that the 40 year old Lombardo has rubbed Ziff’s thigh but that she rebuffed the sexual advance by pushing his hand away. The Post also reported that she allegedly told Lombardo that she was in a relationship and had a boyfriend.
According to the court filings, Ziff said that despite the fact that she was not receptive to his advances, she claims that “ Mr. Lombardo would not stop,” the Post reported.
She alleges that it was then that Lombardo pulled Ziff onto the bed, mounted her and then raped her without the use of a condom, the Post reported. Ziff claims in the court papers that she kept repeating the word “No!” to Lombardo but he refused to take no for an answer
Subsequent to the alleged rape, the court filings say that Ziff was “so traumatized that she could not speak about the rape for several years afterward.”
This was not the last time that Ziff would see Lombardo. The lawsuit claims that Ziff and Lombardo met for several other meetings after that night in the penthouse because “she feared that if she did not, Mr. Lombardo would retaliate against her by using his powerful connections in the modeling and acting industries — including with Mr. Weinstein — to deny her work at an early stage in her career,” the Post reported.
The lawsuit also says that Lombardo finally gave up on pursuing Ziff for sexual encounters after he invited her on a trip to Rome, which she declined, the Post said.
The relationship between Weinstein and Lombardo was apparently quite close and that at the 2003 wedding of Lombardo, Weinstein served as the best man, the report indicated. The Post also said that according to the court filings, Weinstein was named as a defendant in the case that Ziff initiated against Lombardo.
The suit charges of the both men that, “Among the things that bonded them appears to be the abuse of women.” Moreover, the suit alleges that Lombardo served to help Weinstein procure young women by luring them to him so that he could sexually abuse them, as was reported by the Post.
The documents submitted to the court in the lawsuit say that the circumstances of the night of Ziff’s alleged rape “make it apparent that the two men plotted to use the movie screening as a pretext to have sex with their respective targets. This was a practiced operation.”
Other defendants in Ziff’s suit, besides Lombardo and Weinstein are Miramax, and Buena Vista International. The Post reported that another defendant is the production companies’ parent company, the Walt Disney Company, and they are being sued for unspecified damages.
In a statement, Ziff said, “Today I took an important step toward seeking accountability and finally moving towards healing. What happened to me at 19 years old was a catalytic moment for my life’s work.”
