Fil-Italian model testifies in Harvey Weinstein rape trial

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in 2015 cooperated with police by recording Weinstein, after she reported that he had groped her during a casting session. INSTAGRAM

A Filipina Italian model, whose police report led to the sex crimes investigation of movie mogul Harvey Weinstein in 2015, testified in Weinstein’s rape trial on Tuesday, Nov. 8 in a criminal court in Los Angeles.

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez in 2015 cooperated with police by recording Weinstein, after she reported that he had groped her during a casting session.

Gutierrez’s audio recording was published as a smoking gun by Ronan Farrow in his Oct. 2017 expose in The New Yorker.

Gutierrez has become one of Weinstein’s most prominent accusers. None of the charges Weinstein is facing in the trial resulted from her allegations. But prosecutors on Tuesday presented her account to the jury to establish a pattern of bad behavior by Weinstein, Variety reported.

A native of Italy, Gutierrez met Weinstein at a party at Radio City Music Hall i.n New York that she attended with her modeling agency.