Jane Doe #1 in H*rvey W*instein trial reveals her identity
Follow up to these posts.
In W*instein's recent Los Angeles trial, the jury convicted him on all counts related to Jane Doe #1, resulting in him receiving an additional 16 years in prison. He is currently serving a 23 year sentence for the conviction in his New York trial. Because the Los Angeles judge gave him a consecutive sentence rather than a concurrent sentence, he will serve his two sentences separately. For federal convictions, prisoners must serve a minimum of 85% of their sentence before they are eligible for parole, so he will be in prison serving his New York sentence until at least 2039. He is currently 70 years old so he will most likely die in prison.
Throughout this ordeal, former model and actress Evgeniya Chernyshova has remained anonymous, beginning with when she initially reported the crimes back in 2017. Now she says, "I’m tired of hiding. I want my life back. I’m Evgeniya, I’ve been raped. This is my story.” The reason she remained anonymous for so long: "I was ashamed and humiliated. I thought it was a good decision to protect my kids. But it was a horrible decision for myself because I’ve been cut off from everyone. It isn’t right to go through this hell alone.” She decided to come forward because "If I continue to hide, I cannot do anything. I will just be there with my pain.”
Evgeniya was born in Siberia and wanted to become an obstetrician, but after winning a beauty contest she became a model at the age of 15. She eventually settled in Italy where she got married and had some small acting roles.
She met W*instein at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival, which was honoring Al Pacino, in February 2013. After the event, she returned to her room at the Mr. C Beverly Hills Hotel. The front desk called her to say she had a guest downstairs. H*rvey then took the phone and told her, "It's H*rvey and we have to talk." She was confused as to why he was there and told him they could talk the next day. A few minutes later, he knocked on her hotel door and said, "Hey, it’s H*rvey W*instein. Open the door. We have to talk. I’m not going to fuck you, I just have to talk to you."
She said that she was embarrassed that he was yelling loudly outside her room and wanted him to stop so she opened the door. He sat down in a chair and said, "We’re just talking. There’s nothing happening. Why are you so nervous?" After he took off his jacket, she said something changed in his eyes and she realized that something was wrong.
She initially blamed herself, thinking that it was a misunderstanding and that he didn't understand her broken English. She pointed to her wedding ring, told him she had children, and told him to leave. [sensitive content]Instead he opened his pants, at which point she said she got hysterical. She said that he assaulted her in the bedroom and then dragged her into the bathroom and raped her. Afterward, he said he would send her tickets to an event. After he left, she took a shower, cleaned up the hotel room, and then called her children's nanny. She said, "I felt very, very dirty and like I have to die."
In the aftermath, she became depressed and drank heavily. She said that she hated herself and blamed herself for what happened. She thought that with all the beautiful women at the event, he chose her so she must have done something wrong. She said her mother came from a generation that blamed victims so she assumed it was somehow her fault. She eventually separated from her husband.
Four years later, her 16 year old daughter Maria told her that she had been sexually assaulted and was being bullied by her abuser. Evgeniya urged her to report the incident to her police. Maria resisted and said that Evgeniya could never understand, which is when Evgeniya admitted that she had been raped. Maria agreed to report her assault to the police if Evgeniya would do the same. Shortly after Maria went to the police about her assault, the two exposés on W*instein were published in October 2017 and Evgeniya realized that she was not his only victim. LAPD investigated her allegations but did not charge W*instein with her rape until January 2020 (just as his New York trial was beginning). Then it took over two and a half years before her case went to trial in October 2022.
She called her three days of testimony at the Los Angeles trial the worst experience of her life. She said she couldn't sleep and was vomiting from the stress. W*instein's lawyer asked why she posted a photo of herself with Al Pacino at the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival. She said, "He wanted to make me look not credible. You don’t go out, you don’t smile, you have to die. If you’ve been raped, you have to die, that’s it. It’s no life after.”
Although the Los Angeles trial resulted in W*instein being convicted only of the charges related to her, she said, "I believe all of the victims who testified. All of them. And I want to say this - this is not only my victory, this is our victory.”
On February 9, just before the 10 year statute of limitations was up, she filed a civil suit against W*instein seeking damages for sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. At his sentencing on February 23, his attorneys brought up her civil suit as proof that she was just after his money. After he was sentenced to 16 more years in prison, she said, "I feel free, and a heavy weight and burden has been lifted off my chest. I am looking forward to a good night’s sleep.”
You can read her full victim impact statement from last month's sentencing here.
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