Harvey Weinstein accuser Jessica Mann stared down the disgraced movie mogul after taking the witness stand Tuesday, pointing a finger at her eyes as she stalked past the defense table in Manhattan Supreme Court.
Mann, 39, had just gotten done with an emotional recounting of how Weinstein violently raped her in a California hotel at the former Miramax Films head’s retrial on sexual assault charges.
That finger gesture, and her testimony, led defense lawyer Arthur Aidala to move for a mistrial, calling the description of the alleged Peninsula Hotel attack, which he isn’t charged with, “highly prejudicial.”
“That’s absolutely inappropriate, that’s inappropriate behavior by her,” Aidala said. Judge Curtis Farber rejected his calls for a mistrial, bringing the number of unsuccessful mistrial motions by Aidala up to nine.
Mann, whose testimony began Monday, also took the stand in Weinstein’s 2020 trial, but the ex-producer’s guilty verdict and 23-year prison sentence was overturned by the state’s highest court last year.
The retrial, which is in its fifth week, also featured days of testimony from two other accusers, former TV production assistant Miriam Haley — who also took the stand in 2020 — and Polish model and aspiring actress Kaja Sokola.
Mann testified on Monday that she met the then-married in late 2012 or early 2013, and embarked on a “relationship” with him despite his forcibly performing oral sex on her in a Midtown hotel in March 2013.
Her testimony Tuesday morning centered on a horrifying encounter in the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Mann was getting into a serious relationship with an actor, she said, and she wanted a sit-down with Weinstein. “I just wanted this agreement that I would be moving on with my life,” she said.
But when she wouldn’t give up her beau’s name, Weinstein exploded in fury, she said.
“His eyes went black, and he was angry,” she said. “He went into a rage. He lunged at me … he grabbed me and was pulling me into the room, and it happened to me so fast and so forceful.”
She added, “He dragged me into the bedroom and he threw me on the bed, and he said, ‘You owe me one more time.’”
Mann said he ripped her pants with such force that his fingernails left scratch marks on her legs. She curled into a ball by the headboard, paralyzed by fear, and he grabbed her ankles, pulled her down and started raping her, she testified.
“At some point I remember his weight on me, and there’s so much weight on me. And my head was stuck, and I couldn’t breathe. And I just remember everything went black,” she said. She came to on her knees, with Weinstein forcing her into performing oral sex, said.
“And he was done, and I crawled to the bathroom, and I got up, and I remember that I saw myself in the mirror but I didn’t know it was me for a moment, and I didn’t recognize myself,” she said.
Mann appeared overcome with emotion as she described the alleged attack, and had to take a break from her testimony. The pointing incident happened as she left the courtroom.
Mann said she was so disoriented she couldn’t drive home, and she weighed going to the police and agreeing to take a rape exam at a hospital, but decided against it.
“I just imagined more poking and prodding, and I just imagined I would have to say his name,” she said. “And I didn’t know what happened if I would say his name.” So she took an hours-long shower, resolving, “I’m going to bury this so deep, and I’m going to forget about this and move on with my life.”
Weinstein does not face charges in connection with the allegations from the Peninsula Hotel. Rather, he’s charged in connection with the March 2013 rape at Manhattan’s DoubleTree Hotel.
Over the next several years, she kept in touch with Weinstein, showering him with compliments over e-mail but trying to avoid nighttime meetings alone with him. Still, she said, she had a handful of consensual encounters with Weinstein after she and her actor boyfriend broke up.
“I remember I was devastated after my relationship ended. And sometimes you just want to feel wanted. And I knew that I could be used by someone,” she said.
