NEW YORK — The Harvey Weinstein sex crimes trial continued Friday with a crucial witness – a woman whose rape accusation is a central part of the charges against him and whose testimony provoked occasional gasps in court.
Former actress Jessica Mann, 34, took the stand in a Manhattan courthouse to testify against the fallen movie mogul, who she says raped her in his New York hotel room in 2013.
She testified that she and Weinstein had been in a secret sexual relationship that started in Los Angeles but by the time she got to New York around St. Patrick's Day she was trying to break up with him.
At a hotel, they got into an argument and he told her to go to his room. She went, thinking, "At least I can yell at him in private." Once there, he prevented her from leaving, and forced her to undress and get on the bed where he raped her, she said. Previously, their relationship did not include intercourse, she said.
"I was panicked, because my worst nightmare was about to happen," she said. "I was very angry inside and very scared...I gave up at that point."
Afterwards, in the bathroom, she saw a needle in the trash can and examined the name on it so she could look it up later. “I don't remember the medical term (on the package), but when I Googled it, it basically implied (erectile dysfunction medication) " she said, sobbing.
After she returned to Los Angeles, she sent flattering emails to him, trying to prop up what she said was his "fragile" ego. She said there were "a lot of dynamics" in their relationship.
"I wanted to be perceived as innocent and naive and not a threat. I didn’t want to trigger his anger," she said. Did she mean any of the nice or flattering things she told him, she was asked.
"I would usually try to find something based in truth," she said, adding, "I can't answer that question with yes or no."
She said she was sometimes afraid of Weinstein and that fear drove the tone of her emails.
Later, she said, she tried to avoid being alone with Weinstein and often ignored his calls and emails. She started a relationship with "a well-known actor" but feared telling Weinstein. She said he had a "rule" that she could not date anyone in the industry because he considered that "disrespectful."
In opening statements prosecutors said Weinstein assaulted Mann multiple times in 2013, including in Los Angeles, but he is charged in connection with one encounter at the New York hotel.
Mann began her testimony by describing encounters she says she had with Weinstein in Los Angeles County. Mann spoke softly, seemed to be shaking with nerves at times, and sometimes paused before answering questions. She said she grew up devoutly religious in a small, rural town in Wisconsin and moved to Los Angeles when she was 25.
"I would say I grew up in a cult...very extremely Pentecostal," she said.
She said she initially had a hard time breaking into the entertainment business and at one point she was living in her car before she acquired an agent. She met the then-powerful producer Weinstein at an industry party in late 2012 or 2013 in Los Angeles.
"When I met Harvey, I had given up a lot to be in Hollywood," she said. "With my religious background, I thought God was blessing me by meeting him."
At a dinner with him at a hotel in Beverly Hills, they were interrupted by people coming up to the table to greet him. He told the waiter they would take their food upstairs to his room, she said.
"I didn’t want to go up there, but I thought I was helping him by getting away from all this attention. I didn’t have a sense that anything bad was coming, but it was odd," she said.
Once there, he ignored the food, got partially undressed and demanded a massage, which she reluctantly agreed to. After 10 minutes, she left.
"He was manipulative. I was saying I was uncomfortable and he was making me feel stupid, like I was making a big deal over nothing," she said.
Later, she and a friend met him at another Beverly Hills hotel for drinks, where he said they would be suitable for parts in a movie he was producing. When the bar closed, he suggesting going upstairs to his suite for the scripts.
"I didn’t think with my friend there it’d be anything bad,” Mann testified. But once there she said, Weinstein called her into the bedroom, told her friend they'd just be a minute and closed the door. She described tussling with him as he became angrier.
"The more I fought, the angrier he got. And then his anger scared me and I tried to calm down, and tried to joke," she said. "He said, 'I’m not going to let you leave until I do something for you.' He started manipulating me, like, 'you accepted these invitations to my parties,' stuff like that."
She began crying as she described how he forced oral sex on her after pulling down her underwear. "I kind of locked up and got really quiet," she said. She pretended she liked it, she said, then ran out of the room, grabbed her friend and left the suite.
She told her friend what happened but the friend had encouraged her to accept Weinstein's invitations to parties and events. "She was always very adamant about this being the right thing," she said.
She said she was confused about that but "made a decision" to be in a relationship with him. "I entered into what I thought was going to be a real relationship with him, and it was extremely degrading from that point on," she said.
She said she did engage in non-forced oral sex with the Weinstein. She said she was "filled with compassion" for Weinstein when she first saw him.
"Absolute compassion," she said, crying. "It seemed like his anger came from a place of pain."
Why did she continue to have a relationship with him, asked Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi.
"There’s a lot of layers to that question," Mann answered.
Mann's testimony at times caused gasps in the courtroom, and loud objections from the defense table. At one point, she described Weinstein's genitalia, said he had terrible scarring, and that she stayed in a relationship with him because she thought he threatened her father.
"I had a fight with my dad once and he saw that I was upset… he said he’ll send two men there with bats," she testified. "And he said he had a problem with one actress’s stalker that he did that to...There are many likable things about him when he’s nice."
Harvey Weinstein trial: Ex-boyfriend says accuser was 'shocked, upset' after meeting with mogul
Mann said she maintained an email relationship with Weinstein for years after the alleged New York rape, with multiple messages and text messages from Mann to Weinstein suggesting a friendly, even loving relationship.
Weinstein's defense team says that in more than 400 messages between the two, she never accused Weinstein of raping her or harming her. The prosecution is expected to argue that Mann feared for her career, as well as herself, if she said anything.
Questions about why accusers maintain contact with their alleged assailants have been a key issue in the trial. Prosecutors called an expert witness to testify that this is "normal" behavior by victims and it's a "rape myth" to suggest it isn't.
The defense argues that such behavior at least raises reasonable doubt about criminal allegations.
This week, two other accusers, Dawn Dunning and Tarale Wulff, were called to testify; they have accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting them in the mid-2000s, although neither can press charges due to the statute of limitations. They are being offered as "prior bad acts" witnesses aimed at helping prosecutors prove Weinstein had an alleged pattern as a serial predator.
Multiple secondary witnesses were called Thursday to testify on various aspects of earlier witnesses testimony in an effort to corroborate their stories.
Prior to Mann taking the stand Friday, defense lawyers argued a motion to strike Wulff's testimony, saying they had only now learned of a possible new witness who could clarify or change Wulff's testimony, including whether or not she had more than two encounters with Weinstein.
Defense attorney Damon Cheronis accused prosecutors of withholding information about this witness. Judge James Burke denied the motion.
Weinstein, 67, is charged with five sex crimes, including rape and assault, stemming from encounters with Mann and another accuser, Miriam "Mimi" Haleyi, who tearfully testified in court Monday. He has pleaded not guilty and denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
‘I just froze’: Harvey Weinstein accuser tells jury explicit assault details, says he raped her
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