The woman at the centre of Harvey Weinstein’s retried rape case has told a court that the former Hollywood mogul trapped her in a New York hotel room and assaulted her, ignoring her pleas not to do anything sexual.
Jessica Mann sobbed as she told jurors in New York: “I said ‘no’ over and over, and I tried to leave.
“He just treated me like he owned me.”
Ms Mann, 40, a hairstylist and actress, has agreed to be named in the case. She is giving evidence in a criminal court six years after she first told jurors her account of a consensual, if complicated, relationship that veered into rape.
Weinstein – the Oscar-winning movie producer who became a symbol of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct – looked on steadily, sometimes sipping water, as Ms Mann detailed what she says he did to her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
Weinstein, now a 73-year-old prison inmate, denies sexually assaulting anyone and is appealing against sex crime convictions stemming from other women’s accusations on two US coasts.
His lawyers have not yet had a chance to question Ms Mann at this retrial, but have argued that everything that happened between the two was consensual.
Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of raping Ms Mann, but that conviction was overturned. A jury was deadlocked during a retrial last year.
Jurors watched intently as Ms Mann delivered a second day of evidence that sometimes brought her to tears, as it did at the two prior trials. At points on Tuesday, she was asked whether she wanted to take a break, but declined to do so.
Ms Mann met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area party around early 2013, when she had done some acting work and was hoping for a big break.
He expressed interest in her career and followed up with get-togethers that bounced between professional advice, invites to glitzy industry events and advances that made Ms Mann uncomfortable but that she did not refuse, according to her evidence.
She told the court that at one point, she had an emotional “meltdown” that cut off an episode involving Weinstein and another woman.
Despite that distress, Ms Mann decided to have a consensual sexual liaison with the then-married producer. She explained on Tuesday that she had been taught “this is just normal for men to kind of be that way, and I just thought that maybe by being a in relationship with him, it would make me feel better”.
Sometimes, she said, Weinstein was charming and made her feel validated; other times she felt demeaned by his discussions over sexual practices.
And “if he was told ‘no’ or something, it was just like this monster side came out” she said, as she described a demanding man who flaunted his Hollywood influence.
Soon after their relationship began, Weinstein surprised Ms Mann by showing up ahead of a planned breakfast with her and others in New York, where she had piggybacked on a friend’s work trip, she said.
Weinstein took a room at Ms Mann’s hotel, though she had protested at the front desk that they did not need one, according to her and a former hotel employee who testified earlier in the trial.
Ms Mann said that after Weinstein snapped at her not to embarrass him, she accompanied Weinstein up to the room, hoping to sort things out privately.
But “he wasn’t listening to me; he was just telling me to undress,” she recalled.
She said she begged him: “Please don’t. I don’t want to,” and tried twice to open the door, but the taller, heavier Weinstein slammed it shut, grabbed her wrists and held them crossed in front of her face.
“That was really scary, so I remember just like kind of like — just shutting down and giving up, because I had been fighting and arguing. So I obeyed,” by undressing and lying on the bed, she said.
After a trip to the bathroom, Weinstein returned and raped her, she claimed.
Afterwards, Ms Mann said, she went downstairs with him to breakfast with her friends, feeling shocked but not outwardly showing it.
Ms Mann told no-one, at the time, about the alleged rape. She accepted Weinstein’s invitation to extend her trip, attending a movie screening and having tea with him and his daughter.
“I just wanted everyone to act like everything was normal,” she said.
The case continues.