Jessica Mann is set to face grueling cross-examination at Harvey Weinstein’s trial today on why she maintained a relationship with him despite telling the court he raped her and describing his ‘deformed genitals’
- Key accuser Jessica Mann, 34, is set to face a potentially grueling cross-examination on Monday
- On Friday she shared an explosive testimony where she described Weinstein as ‘intersex’ or a burns victim
- She claimed the disgraced movie honcho allegedly raped her in a New York hotel room in March 2013
- Eight months later Weinstein allegedly assaulted her against at a Los Angeles hotel
- Mann’s allegations, along with those of production assistant Mimi Haleyi, are behind his five felony charges
- Weinstein’s defense team, led by attorney Donna Rotunno, is expected to question Mann on why she remained in touch with Weinstein and sent him flattering emails after the alleged assaults
- The 67-year-old denies the accusations and insists any sexual encounters were consensual
Key accuser Jessica Mann is set to face a potentially grueling cross-examination on Monday, after she shared an explosive testimony at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial where she described his ‘deformed’ genitalia and recounted how she entered an ‘extremely degrading’ relationship with the movie mogul.
The 34-year-old former aspiring actress took the witness stand in Manhattan criminal court on Friday where she claimed the disgraced movie honcho allegedly raped her in a New York hotel room in March 2013 after injecting his penis with an erection-inducing drug.
He allegedly assaulted her again eight months later at a Los Angeles hotel after she told him she had a boyfriend and wanted to end their relationship. He screamed at her and said, ‘You owe me one more time!’ and dragged her into a bedroom and raped her.
Weinstein’s defense team, led by attorney Donna Rotunno, is expected to question Mann on why she remained in touch with Weinstein and sent him flattering emails.
She once told him ‘I love you but I hate feeling like a booty call’, four years after he supposedly raped her.
Harvey Weinstein looked grim as he arrived to court on Monday for what’s expected to be a tense cross-examination of one of his key accusers, Jessica Mann
Clutching onto his walker, Weinstein shared a soft smile upon walking into Manhattan criminal court on Monday
The 67-year-old denies the rape and sexual assault allegations against him and insists any sexual encounters were consensual. A conviction could put him behind bars for life. Pictured arriving to court on Monday
Weinstein’s defense team, led by attorney Donna Rotunno, is expected to question Mann on why she remained in touch with Weinstein and sent him flattering emails after he allegedly assaulted her
Key accuser Jessica Mann is set to face a potentially grueling cross-examination on Monday at Harvey Weinstein’s rape trial. Pictured Friday before testifying at his trial, recounting how the movie mogul allegedly raped her in a New York City hotel in 2013
She claimed it was because ‘his ego was so fragile’ and it ‘made me feel safe, worshiping him in this sense. … I wanted to be perceived as innocent and naive.’
Mann’s allegations against Weinstein, along with a former production assistant named Mimi Haleyi, are behind the five felony charges he faces. He faces three sex crime charges for alleged sexual assault encounters with Mann. The two other charges stem from Haleyi’s allegations that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her at his Soho apartment in 2006.
The 67-year-old denies the allegations and insists any sexual encounters were consensual. A conviction could put him behind bars for life.
On Friday Mann shared a bombshell, sexually-explicit account where she said she thought Weinstein was ‘physically deformed or intersex’ when she saw him naked for the first time. She said he does not have testicle and his penis ‘looks like a vagina’.
‘When I first saw him, I was filled with compassion, absolute compassion,’ she said, adding, ‘It seemed his anger came from a place of pain.’
She broke down in tears during her testimony as she described growing up on a dairy farm in rural Washington state to a religious family in a community she described as a ‘cult, it was extremely religious Pentecostal evangelist.’
She said her parents divorced when she was four and she left home at 16. She moved to Los Angeles at 25 to pursue an acting career.
Mann met Weinstein at the engagement party for Michael Lambert in the Hollywood Hills around the end of 2012 as he was talking to a friend of hers. That night he filed her head with promises of a potential acting career.
He invited her to dinner at the Peninsula Hotel in Los Angeles and invited her up to his hotel suite where he asked her to give him a massage.
Asked to describe the sensation, she said: ‘He had a lot, a lot of blackheads. The texture of that was uncomfortable’.
Afterwards she said that ‘I did express that I was not sexual or comfortable with this with someone I don’t know.’
What’s happened in the trial so far
So far five accusers have testified against Weinstein.
On Monday January 27 Haleyi, whose allegations are at the heart of the Weinstein case, broke down in tears as she recounted how the film honcho, who got her a job as a production assistant on the show Project Runway, allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on her while she was on her period at his New York City apartment in July 2006. She also claimed he raped her at a TriBeCa hotel two weeks afterwards.
‘I did reject him, but he insisted. Every time I tried to get off the bed, he would push me back and hold me down,’ Haleyi, 42, said choking on tears.
‘I was crying no, no. I told him I’m on my period. It was as if he didn’t believe me. I said something like where is it then? He literally pulled my tampon out,’ she added.
Haleyi (in cream trench coat) worked for Project Runway, a reality show Weinstein produced. Pictured in court on Monday
She underwent an intense cross-examination where Weinstein’s attorney Damon Cheronis claimed she had a consensual relationship with Weinstein and zeroed in on her continued contact with the producer even after the alleged assaults, showing e-mails and notes in her diary.
On Tuesday January 28 Haleyi’s roommate in 2006, Elizabeth Entin, testified to corroborate her claims. Entin said on one occasion Weinstein barged into their home to demand Haleyi go to Paris with him but got scared by her pet Chihuahua Peanut.
On Wednesday January 29 Tarale Wulff and Dawn Dunning, both so-called ‘Molineux’ witnesses, testified to demonstrate Weinstein’s ‘prior bad acts’ and pattern of pattern behavior. Weinstein’s charges do not stem from their accounts.
Tarale Wulff testified that Weinstein masturbated in front of her while she was working as a cocktail waitress at the upscale New York club Cipriani and raped her at his New York City apartment in 2005 after calling her in for an audition saying ‘Don’t worry, I’ve had a vasectomy’.
Dawn Dunning, who also met the movie mogul when trying to become an actress, said that Weinstein put his hand up her skirt during a business meeting at his hotel suite in 2004 and he offered her movie roles in exchange for a threesome, claiming, ‘This is how the industry works!’
On Thursday January 30 four supporting witnesses testified to corroborate earlier claims.
On Friday January 31 key accuser Jessica Mann testified how Weinstein allegedly raped her in a New York hotel room in 2013 after injecting himself with an erection-inducing drug. She said his genitalia was ‘deformed’ and he had no testicles. Despite being allegedly assaulted several times by Weinstein, she maintained contact with him
Last week Annabella Sciorra testified that Weinstein forced his way into her Manhattan apartment one winter night in 1993 or 1994 and violently raped her.
In total six women are expected to testify against the producer, while more than 90 women have accused the Miramax founder of sexual misconduct, harassment, rape, and unwanted touching.
She broke down in tears as she recounted the alleged rape saying: ‘I was crying no, no. I told him I’m on my period. It was as if he didn’t believe me. I said something like where is it then? He literally pulled my tampon out’
Annabella Sciorra cried as she took the stand in Harvey Weinstein’s New York trial last week to tell how he allegedly raped her in 1993 or 1994. She appeared in The Sopranos as Tony Soprano’s mistress (right)
Who are Weinstein’s accusers who have or will testify?
Actress Annabella Sciorra testified two weeks ago against Weinstein, claiming he raped her in her New York City apartment in 1993.
Former production assistant Mimi Haleyi testified on January 27 and claimed Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her inside his apartment in 2006.
Jessica Mann testified Friday on how the movie mogul allegedly raped her in a Midtown Manhattan hotel in 2013.
Costume designer Dawn Dunning testified Wednesday January 29 that Weinstein sexually harassed her and tried to pressure her into having a three-way with him and his assistant when she was 24 at a Manhattan hotel in 2004.
Aspiring actress Tarale Wulff testified Wednesday January 29 that Weinstein masturbated in front of her as she was working as a cocktail waitress at Cipriani Upstairs in Manhattan and he later assaulted her in his bedroom in 2005.
A sixth woman, Lauren Young, claims he groped her in a hotel, masturbated and ejaculated onto a bathroom floor in February 2012 at a dinner event during Oscar season when she was 22.
In addition to these six accusers the judge is allowing four other women to testify to establish a pattern of behavior, even though most of their allegations are too old to prosecute as crimes according to state law.
The trial started on January 6 and could last until early March.
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