Girl accusing Harvey Weinstein of rape describes their advanced historical past

Jessica Mann is the final of three accusers to testify within the case, and the one with arguably probably the most difficult historical past with Weinstein. The 73-year-old has pleaded not responsible to all the costs and maintains he by no means sexually assaulted or raped anybody.

Mann, a cosmetologist and hairstylist, mentioned she met Weinstein at a celebration in late 2012 or early 2013, when she was in her 20s and had not too long ago moved to Los Angeles to attempt to launch an performing profession.

She mentioned he took an curiosity in her ambitions, and so they had just a few follow-up conferences that alternated between skilled discuss and boundary-pushing, significantly a request for a therapeutic massage that Mann mentioned she reluctantly gave the ex-studio boss. Weinstein invited her to awards-season events together with an Oscars bash that was such a brand new expertise for a girl from a small city in Washington state that she attended in her high-school promenade gown.

She mentioned she wasn’t interested in Weinstein and initially refused his first sexual advance. It occurred after he requested her as much as a Beverly Hills resort room underneath the pretext of getting a film script in 2013, she mentioned.

Mann mentioned she finally succumbed to Weinstein performing oral intercourse on that event and pretended to take pleasure in it as a result of Weinstein mentioned he would not let her depart till she let him “do one thing.” Though she felt confused and “defiled,” she then agreed to consensual encounters with him, she mentioned.

Mann mentioned she nervous concerning the skilled penalties of alienating a strong producer who had simply dangled the prospect of film roles for her and her roommate. She additionally recalled pondering that “if I used to be in a relationship, possibly it could really feel completely different.”

“I simply thought that possibly it could take the ache away,” Mann, 39, testified via tears as Weinstein watched from his seat on the protection desk, together with his proper hand resting throughout his mouth.

Mann hasn’t but described the alleged rape in New York in 2013. Her testimony was because of proceed Monday afternoon.

Weinstein’s legal professionals haven’t but had their flip to query her. Throughout opening statements final month, protection legal professional Arthur Aidala contended that Mann had a “a mutually useful relationship” with the previous film producer in hopes of “chopping the road” to an performing profession.

“She manipulates the entire scenario,” Aidala mentioned on the time.

As soon as one in all Hollywood’s most influential producers, Weinstein turned an emblem of sexual misconduct after media experiences revealed allegations in opposition to him in 2017. The disclosures fueled the #MeToo motion’s requires accountability.

In the course of the previous 5 years, he was convicted of varied intercourse crimes in each New York and California. However he’s on trial once more as a result of an appeals courtroom discovered that his New York trial was tainted by prejudicial testimony and overturned that conviction. He’s charged with raping Mann and with forcing oral intercourse on two different girls, individually, in 2006.

The Related Press usually doesn’t establish individuals who alleged they’ve been sexually assaulted until they comply with be recognized. Mann has performed so.

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