NEW YORK (Reuters) – A onetime aspiring actress informed a Manhattan jury on Friday that Harvey Weinstein raped her in a lodge place while she was in an “extremely degrading” romantic relationship with the film producer.
The female, Jessica Mann, claimed she informed no one particular about what experienced took place.
“I was so ashamed,” she claimed, crying on the witness stand.
Mann likened Weinstein to “Jekyll and Hyde,” declaring he could be charming in public but generally confirmed horrifying anger when they were being on your own.
“If he heard the phrase ‘no,’ it was like a trigger for him,” she claimed.
On cross-evaluation, Weinstein’s attorneys prompt that Mann stayed with him to further more her Hollywood vocation.
Weinstein, sixty seven, has pleaded not guilty to raping Mann and to sexually assaulting one more female, Mimi Haleyi. Due to the fact 2017, additional than eighty girls have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
Weinstein, who produced movies including “The English Patient” and “Shakespeare in Love,” has denied any nonconsensual sex.
The trial is broadly seen as a milestone in the #MeToo motion, in which girls have accused potent adult males in business, amusement, media and politics of sexual misconduct.
Mann, now 34, testified that she fulfilled Weinstein in late 2012 or early 2013 at a occasion in Los Angeles and that he informed her he was fascinated in her as an actress.
Weinstein afterwards invited her and her buddy to a lodge suite in Los Angeles, Mann testified. When they arrived, Mann claimed, Weinstein pulled her into a bed room, leaving her buddy outdoors.
There, she claimed, Weinstein informed her to sit on the bed and executed oral sex on her. Mann claimed she pretended to have an orgasm so he would prevent.
Weinstein is not billed with a crime in link with that come across.
Mann claimed she then entered into a romantic relationship with Weinstein.
“I entered into what I assumed was likely to be a actual romantic relationship with him and it was very degrading from that stage on.”
When Assistant District Legal professional Joan Illuzzi requested her why she stayed in a romantic relationship, Mann, generally crying, claimed there was “no brief answer.”
“One of the facets in the beginning was that I experienced experienced a sexual encounter” with him, she claimed. “That was not a thing I could undo. That definitely puzzled me and damage me.”
She claimed she engaged in oral sex with Weinstein for the duration of the romantic relationship but by no means experienced intercourse with him until he raped her at a lodge in Manhattan in 2013.
She claimed she wrote “flattering” emails for the duration of her romantic relationship with Weinstein but that these were being pushed by anxiety.
Mann claimed that ultimately, at a Los Angeles lodge, she informed Weinstein she experienced a boyfriend and wished to finish the romantic relationship. She claimed Weinstein screamed at her, “You owe me one particular additional time,” dragged her into a bed room and raped her all over again.
Weinstein is not billed in link with that come across both.
Justice James Burke instructed the jury that Mann’s testimony about her encounters prior to and immediately after the alleged rape in New York could only be applied as evidence of Weinstein’s intent and whether or not Mann consented in that New York come across. He claimed it could not be applied as evidence of a propensity by Weinstein to dedicate rape.
On cross-evaluation, Donna Rotunno, one particular of Weinstein’s attorneys, aggressively questioned Mann’s account and regularly prompt she selected to have sex with Weinstein to progress her vocation.
“You were being manipulating Mr. Weinstein so you’d get invited to fancy parties, right?” she requested.
“I was not manipulating him,” Mann answered.
Rotunno requested Mann whether or not, in 2013, she assumed Weinstein may solid her in a film, and Mann claimed she did.
“You were being likely to keep on to do whichever you experienced to do to make that take place?” Rotunno requested.
“I would not place it that way,” Mann claimed.
The cross-evaluation is envisioned to keep on on Monday.
(The story adds title and name of Justice James Burke in 22nd paragraph)
Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York producing by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware Enhancing by Noeleen Walder, Dan Grebler and Jonathan Oatis