Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, 27, recorded Harvey Weinstein as he admitted to groping her in 2015, but the Manhattan District Attorney's office refused to bring charges against the movie mogul. Five years later, Gutierrez says she doesn't regret coming forward - despite the subsequent smear campaign that derailed her career

An Italian-Filipina model who recorded Harvey Weinstein as he admitted to groping her before the Manhattan District Attorney's office inexplicably refused to bring charges against him says she doesn't regret coming forward - despite the subsequent smear campaign that derailed her career.

Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, 27, was one of the first women to publicly accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct in 2015 when she went to police and claimed he had fondled her breasts and put his hand up her skirt during a business meeting.

Investigators had her wear a wire when she went to meet with the producer the following day. In the tapes he was heard apologizing for his inappropriate touching as he begged the then-22-year-old to go to his hotel room.

Gutierrez investigators initially congratulated her for capturing Weinstein's damning remarks on tape and insisted that her efforts would land him behind bars.

Her confidence in the justice system was soon crushed as the Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to bring charges against Weinstein amid intense pressure from the producer's lawyers and a vicious smear campaign the mogul's team launched to destroy her credibility.

Desperate to protect herself and her family from further damage, Gutierrez signed a million-dollar non-disclosure agreement and turned over her electronic devices so her recordings of Weinstein could be deleted.

But she held onto one copy of the tapes, believing that they were the one thing that could definitively prove she was telling the truth.

Two years later she agreed to let Ronan Farrow publish part of her story in his bombshell expose which helped spark Weinstein's downfall in 2017.

Gutierrez recounted the traumatic ordeal in an interview with The Cut last week, just as the first criminal sex abuse case against Weinstein came to a close in New York City.

Gutierrez, an Italian-Filipina actress (left in 2018), met Weinstein (right in court Tuesday) at his New York Spring Spectacular show in New York City on March 26, 2015. She claims he fondled her breasts and stuck his hand up her skirt during a business meeting the next day

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to press charges against Weinstein, even though Gutierrez had recorded him admitted to misconduct. Vance's office is now leading the first criminal case against Weinstein, for which jury deliberations began Tuesday

Gutierrez, a former Miss Italy contestant, first met Weinstein at his New York Spring Spectacular show at Radio City Music Hall on March 26, 2015.

The pair met up to discuss her career the following day, after which Gutierrez went to police and claimed that he'd groped her.

'I knew the moment I got to the police station that Weinstein was dangerous,' she told The Cut in the interview published Tuesday.

'When I said his name and that he'd assaulted me, the guy at the glass door answered with: "Again?" That gave me strength; that made me just want to do something about it.'

She wore a wire when she met with Weinstein the next day at the Tribeca Grand Hotel and confronted him in an effort to get him to admit on tape what he'd done.

Gutierrez said she began to lose hope in her case against Weinstein when she met with Martha Bashford (pictured), who was head of the NYPD's Sex Crimes unit at the time. She said Bashford interrogated her as if she was the criminal

'Oh, please. I'm sorry,' he was heard saying. 'I won't do it again … I will never do another thing to you. Five minutes. Don't ruin your friendship with me for five minutes.'

Gutierrez said investigators were very supportive of her when she handed over the tapes.

'They were saying: "Ambra, you did it. You put him in jail. He's going to go to jail,"' she recalled, describing the relief she felt when she went home that night.

But she would soon learn that her faith in the system was 'naïve', beginning when she met with Marsha Bashford, who was head of the NYPD's Sex Crimes Unit at the time and resigned earlier this month amid Weinstein's trial.

'Bashford interrogated me like I was the criminal, with questions like, "Have you ever been a prostitute?" Or, "Have you ever gotten gifts?" Or, "Have you ever asked for a movie role?"

'And I'm like, "Did you hear the recordings?" The recordings made it clear that this person was absolutely pushing for me to go in that room and to assault me, pushing the fact that my career was going to be ruined and he's a famous person and that I'm nothing.

'So, what wasn't clear? Even if I was a prostitute - which I was not - every person has the right to not do things with people that they don't want to. I remember the moment I left that room after that interrogation, I thought: "This is not going right."'

Gutierrez (pictured in 2018) says she was 'naive' to believe that the justice system would punish Weinstein based on her account alone, but says she doesn't regret coming forward

Matters only got worse from there, as Gutierrez was battered with negative publicity.

Tabloids branded her 'Grope Girl' and ran nasty stories about her past alongside photos of her modeling bikinis, causing her to be dropped by designers and shows.

'It was kind of easy for Weinstein, with the type of people that he knows and power to put me down,' she said. 'The public opinion at first was with me and then, after a little bit, it was against me.'

'I work with my image, so ruining my reputation was destroying me completely,' she added.

The DA's office never called Gutierrez to inform her that Weinstein wouldn't be prosecuted, so she found out the news through the media like everyone else.

'I thought already that everything was falling apart and they [the DA's office] would not come to help me,' she said.

'I didn't speak much English, but I could understand what was happening, and it was all against me.'

Gutierrez made the decision to sign an NDA with Weinstein's lawyers after her brother called her and said that someone had come to his work asking about her.

'My blood just turned super cold. I was shaking and everything. I'm like, "Okay, that’s it." That's when I decided to sign this agreement,' she said.

She vividly remembers the day she went to an office in Midtown to sign the NDA.

'There was the lawyer for Harvey, very nervous talking to me, saying: "Thank you so much for being here. We're so glad to have you, and I'm so sorry."'

She said she repeatedly told the lawyer: 'I'm going to sign this, but if I hear of him [Weinstein] hurting anyone else, I would not care about [the paper] I signed.'

After Gutierrez came forward tabloids branded her 'Grope Girl' and ran nasty stories about her past alongside photos of her modeling bikinis, causing her to lose modeling jobs

'I work with my image, so ruining my reputation was destroying me completely,' Gutierrez told The Cut. She is pictured during a photoshoot in 2017

Under the terms of the NDA Gutierrez had to turn over all of her electronic devices and email passwords so the lawyers could ensure that her recordings of Weinstein were removed.

She had sent the tapes to five different email addresses on the day they were recorded. She told her lawyer that she forgot the password to one of those email accounts so it was never checked.

Gutierrez told The Cut she wasn't sure what she was going to with the tapes, but that she knew she 'had to get those out'.

'That was the key to getting my life back,' she said. 'Being believed, getting my name back to who I was or I am right now. That I wasn't lying. I was right. I told the truth.'

Over the following few months Gutierrez spiraled into a 'very deep depression'.

'I knew what the truth was, and that nobody would listen, and I didn't know how to get those recordings out. I didn't know who to trust,' she said.

In 2017 she found hope in Farrow, who included her account in his scathing piece outlining sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein in the New Yorker that fall.

Farrow's report and another similar expose from the New York Times were awarded a Pulitzer Prize and are credited with sparking the #MeToo movement.

'That day that those recordings came out publicly, I think I was so happy that I smiled like the whole day,' Gutierrez said. 'It was so weird. It was like I had a baby or something.'

Guttierez agreed to let Ronan Farrow publish part of her story in his bombshell expose which helped spark Weinstein's downfall in 2017. She is pictured with Farrow last month during a recording for his podcast Catch and Kill

Five years after her own experience, Gutierrez says she still gets overcome with emotion when she hears what other victims went through with Weinstein.

'I know what it means feeling like you're in a cage and having the possibility to talk and understand that someone would be on your side,' she said.

She said she has no regrets about reporting Weinstein despite the backlash she personally endured.

'I would've done it a million times,' she said.

Asked whether she is concerned that the same office that ignored her claims is prosecuting the current case against Weinstein, Gutierrez replied: 'I know, but how can you just not do what is right if everyone is watching you?

'I'm here waiting, very anxious. I really hope they get justice and they see this person getting what he deserves, because he didn't do it once. He did it too many times. It just makes my heart cry.'

She said that even if the jury doesn't convict Weinstein, she still has hope for the Los Angeles case against him.

And even if both cases fail to result in a conviction, she is grateful that the truth is finally out.

'People know now what's going on, and Ronan Farrow's still writing about it, and you guys are writing about it, and so many others wrote about it,' she said.

'There's more women having their strength back, the support that before that we didn't have. It's something that at least we achieved, and it's a lot already.'

Weinstein is currently awaiting a jury's verdict on five counts of sexual assault.

He faces life in prison if convicted.

The disgraced producer has always denied any wrongdoing and says any and all sexual contact he had was consensual.