The accuser at Harvey Weinstein ′s rape retrial returned to court docket Friday, a day after she mentioned she was having problem focusing, and completed 5 days of fraught, usually tearful testimony.
“I’m not doing too good proper now, so I’m actually making an attempt to recollect,” Jessica Mann mentioned as a protection lawyer resumed scrutinizing her communications and get-togethers with the previous film magnate after the alleged 2013 rape. She added: “I really feel like I mentioned loads, and I’m making an attempt to get via this.”
However Mann went on to answer hours of questions, at occasions seeming exhausted or asking for queries to be repeated. By the top of the day, as prosecutors took their second flip asking questions, she was slumped together with her head propped on her left hand, weeping as she mentioned she was being “as truthful and clear as I can probably be.”
Mann, 40, and Weinstein, 73, are within the midst of the third trial about her accusation that he compelled himself on her in a New York resort room. Weinstein’s attorneys say the whole lot that occurred between the 2 was consensual and a part of a four-year, caring relationship.
He was initially convicted in 2020, however an appeals court docket overturned that verdict, and jurors at a retrial final yr stopped deliberating on the rape cost when the foreperson refused to take part additional. That left the case unresolved and led to the continuing re-retrial.
The Related Press doesn’t establish individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted until they comply with be named, as Mann has performed.
Weinstein was a high-flying movie producer till allegations about him fueled the #MeToo motion towards sexual misconduct in 2017. He has mentioned he “acted wrongly, however I by no means assaulted anybody.”
He and Mann met in early 2013, when he was a studio boss and she or he was a 27-year-old hairstylist and actor making an attempt to construct a film profession. She has testified that he quickly began making advances, and though she was shocked, she determined to embark on a relationship with the then-married Weinstein.
She alleges that in March 2013, he trapped her in a midtown Manhattan resort room, angrily ordered her to undress as he loomed over her, ignored her protests and raped her.
Weinstein’s attorneys have seized upon a reflective be aware she wrote to herself two days later. In it, she talked about her emotional attachment to a person she did not title and her conflicted emotions about their nonexclusive relationship, asking herself: “Do I really like him or the concept of him?” The be aware, which wasn’t talked about at Weinstein’s earlier trials, would not point out any alleged sexual assault.
Requested Friday why it did not, Mann paused and mentioned: “I don’t have to jot down that down.”
Her relationship with Weinstein continued, on and off, for years afterward. Mann has testified that she cherished “part of him” and “all the time tried to see the great in him,” and that she was cautious of crossing a well-connected man who flexed his energy. He boasted that his “enemies don’t step a foot on this city,” she mentioned.
On Friday, Weinstein lawyer Teny Geragos took Mann again via varied pleasant and complimentary emails that she despatched to or about Weinstein over time. In a single Could 2013 textual content, she instructed a pal that “I just like the Harvey we all know. I really feel some sense of safety.”
Mann instructed jurors he helped her navigate the film business, and “there was a time after I felt he did defend me.”
Via testimony that spanned 5 days and centered on occasions 13 years in the past, Mann usually mentioned she could not recall varied occasions and particulars, particularly dates. As questioning got here to a detailed, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg sought to cement that Mann had precisely remembered the alleged rape.
“Are these particulars clear in your thoughts as you sit right here at the moment?” Blumberg requested.
“I keep in mind,” Mann mentioned, and was instructed there have been no extra questions. She walked, sobbing, from the room.
