On the witness stand once more after 5 years, former actress Jessica Mann cried as she advised a New York jury how disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein allegedly raped her in a 2013 Midtown resort room.
Ms Mann, now 38, sobbed as she recounted the alleged assault on the DoubleTree Lodge in Midtown on March 18, 2013. She described how Weinstein trapped her within the room, injected himself with a substance she later realized was used to deal with erectile dysfunction, after which pressured penetrative intercourse on her.
“That is concerning the second the place I simply gave up,” she mentioned, recalling how Harvey Weinstein allegedly blocked the door and requested her to undress, as per The Hollywood Reporter.
After the encounter, Ms Mann mentioned she discovered a needle within the trash labelled with a phrase resembling “necro-something.”
“I discovered on Google that it principally meant ‘lifeless penis,'” she advised the jury, explaining how the treatment may solely be used a restricted variety of occasions. “I used to be freaked out. Did I get uncovered to one thing? It was scary.”
Regardless of the traumatic incident, Ms Mann testified that she continued a posh relationship with Harvey Weinstein afterwards. “I simply determined to have a relationship with him. I am sorry if that is a nasty resolution. I simply did. I additionally simply needed to purchase time as a result of I actually did not know find out how to deal with it,” she mentioned, crying on the stand.
She described Harvey Weinstein as “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”, referring to the Nineteenth-century gothic horror novella about an outwardly respectable man who commits surprising crimes.
“Generally he validated me a lot… however the phrase ‘No’ was like a set off to him. This different persona, I known as it ‘The Monster facet’, would come out,” she mentioned.
Earlier than the 2013 resort room rape incident, Ms Mann mentioned Weinstein beforehand carried out undesirable oral intercourse on her throughout their first non-public assembly in Los Angeles. She advised the jury that he invited her and a good friend to his resort room on the pretext of giving them a script for Vampire Academy.
As soon as alone along with her within the bed room, Ms Mann mentioned Harvey Weinstein pressured himself on her regardless of her resistance, describing the encounter as a “battle.” Although shaken, Ms Mann testified that she determined to enter a relationship with him afterwards, hoping it could make sense of the traumatic expertise. “I simply thought it could take the ache away,” she mentioned in courtroom.
Ms Mann mentioned she feared talking out on the time attributable to his affect and his highly effective connections, together with with former US President Invoice Clinton. “I bear in mind imagining if I ever mentioned something, he would name his good friend and the Secret Service would come get me,” she mentioned, as per The NY Submit.
Ms Mann added she by no means accepted cash from Harvey Weinstein. “It simply felt such as you’re making an attempt to pay me like a unclean prostitute. I by no means needed his soiled cash. I wasn’t on the market.”
The retrial comes after Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction, the place he was discovered responsible of third-degree rape in opposition to Ms Mann – was overturned. He now faces as much as 25 years in jail if convicted on probably the most severe rape cost associated to Ms Mann’s account.
Jessica Mann is the third and remaining accuser to testify within the retrial. Earlier, former teen mannequin Kaja Sokola and former manufacturing assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haley additionally took the stand, alleging comparable assaults by Harvey Weinstein. Prosecutors are presenting every of those ladies’s testimonies not just for the precise fees however to indicate a sample of predatory behaviour.
The 73-year-old has pleaded not responsible to all fees.