Jessica Mann, the woman at the center of Harvey Weinstein’s third New York rape trial, concluded a brutal five days of testimony Friday, with the defense hammering away at the narrative that she wasn’t a victim but rather eagerly associated with the once-prolific producer.
Her complexion ashen, the 40-year-old Mann appeared drained and distressed on her fifth consecutive day on the stand and second day of being cross-examined by Teny Geragos. Mann has admitted there were consensual aspects of her years-long relationship with Weinstein, and Geragos repeatedly sought to emphasize how she had often been proactive about staying in touch with him after he allegedly raped her.
The lawyer pulled up more than a dozen emails showing the once-budding actress fawning over the Oscar-winning producer and seeking his counsel like a father figure.
“The person you reach out to when you’re having a rough day is Harvey Weinstein?” Geragos asked during one back-and-forth about Mann messaging Weinstein after a 2014 breakup.
“At this time, yeah, I reached out to him,” Mann said.
Also displayed were Mann’s emails with Weinstein when her father, absent in her youth, was dying in 2015. She said Weinstein had been sensitive, telling Geragos, “He was saying nice things to me.”
As Mann left the courtroom after her testimony concluded she was in a flood of tears. Apparenty flustered, she thanked Geragos.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to one count of third-degree rape, the prosecution alleging he attacked Mann inside a room at the DoubleTree Hotel in Midtown on March 18, 2013, around a month after meeting her at a party in Los Angeles. She had moved to California after a poor upbringing in rural Washington hoping to break into acting.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Former actress Jessica Mann (center) appears in Manhattan criminal court to testify against Harvey Weinstein on Thursday. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The multi-convicted Miramax founder maintains he never engaged in nonconsensual activity with Mann, or anyone else.
His team has tried to portray Mann as a manipulator who used the Oscar-winning producer to access the glitz and glamor of Hollywood. Prosecutors contend Mann was powerless and effortlessly preyed upon by the much older man, in opening statements saying he took advantage of her ambitions and low-self esteem and was never out of the driver’s seat.
Weinstein, 74, was found guilty of raping Mann in 2020 — and of sexually assaulting another woman — but the conviction, a major milestone in the #MeToo movement, was overturned in 2024 for reasons not directly related to either woman.
When Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office tried the case again last year, prosecutors secured Weinstein’s conviction again on a sexual assault charge involving Miriam Haley, but couldn’t agree on Mann’s allegations, leading to the second retrial.
As one of the first two women the disgraced producer was charged with assaulting when he was arrested eight years ago this month, Mann has been connected to Weinstein’s criminal matters from the outset.
Throughout it all, she has maintained that her dynamic with Weinstein was complex and not entirely defined by his dominance and influence as a Hollywood heavyweight. She cried at one point on Wednesday when asked about an email she had sent him telling him she loved him.
“We had some pretty human moments,” Mann said. “I was always trying to separate some of the stuff he would do from [his] essence.”
She later added, “I don’t think I was perfect. I don’t think I handled everything right, but I really did, truly, have an emotional bond with him.”
The actor and hairstylist, while conceding she made poor choices, has been resolute about the alleged attack at the DoubleTree Hotel and another uncharged incident of sexual assault at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills months later, testifying that Weinstein crossed a hard line during both encounters and ignored her repeated cries to stop.
“It was like he didn’t care to listen,” she testified Tuesday, in tears. “He just treated me like he owned me.”
All told, Friday marked Jessica Mann’s eleventh day providing trial testimony against Weinstein — having spent three days on the stand at the 2020 trial and another three answering questions before the jury last year.
Thursday, Justice Curtis Farber ended proceedings early after Mann said she felt “spacey” and dissociated following a tough line of questioning about personal notes she wrote in the days after the DoubleTree incident. Purportedly written about Weinstein, they did not detail a rape.
“I want that person to love me back,” the notes read in part. “God, protect me from my own lack of understanding and naivety.”
The cross-examination remained hard to follow on Friday, with a subdued Mann frequently asking Geragos and the judge to repeat or reword questions. She grew frustrated with the court’s technology and requested hard copies of transcripts instead of reading them on a monitor.
“Are you having trouble hearing me this afternoon or understanding?” Geragos asked during one back-and-forth.
Mann appeared equally at wit’s end when Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg took over on redirect late Friday, defeatedly putting her head in her hands when the prosecutor asked if she’d testified to the best of her ability about the emails. “I’m being as truthful and transparent as I can possibly be,” Mann responded.
Asked about the personal notes that did not detail the rape, Mann was barely audible when she said, “I don’t have to write that down.”
The jury of seven men and five women has appeared intently focused on the testimony. At least three women have frequently been jotting down notes.
Whether or not they find Weinstein guilty, the verdict will have little meaningful impact on his future. Weinstein is yet to be sentenced on the sexual assault charge he was found guilty of last year, which carries up to 25 years, and he’s set to continue serving a 16-year sentence in California for his separate 2022 rape and sexual assault conviction when the Manhattan matter concludes.
The trial continues Tuesday.