Two days after allegedly being raped by Harvey Weinstein, his accuser wrote herself a reflective note about becoming “emotionally attached” to someone and wanting a loving partnership, according to exhibits and testimony Thursday at the former movie mogul’s retrial.
Nowhere did the note mention the alleged sexual assault days before at a Manhattan hotel, a Weinstein lawyer pointed out in confronting accuser Jessica Mann with the missive — which hasn’t emerged at two previous trials about her allegation.
Weinstein, 73, is on trial for the third time on a charge accusing him of raping Mann in a New York hotel in March 2013. He was initially convicted in 2020, but an appeals court overturned that verdict. During his first retrial, the jury couldn’t reach a decision on the rape charge.
In the sketchy, journal-like note on her cellphone testified about on Thursday, Mann mused about budding feelings of attachment in a non-exclusive relationship with someone she didn’t name. She reflected on how she wanted a mutual and loving relationship and said her feelings toward the unnamed person were creating inner conflict for her.
After describing fears of rejection, unworthiness and being a “‘bad’ person,” she appealed for God’s guidance.
“I know that I was struggling with some of the decisions I was making that were different than what I was raised with,” Mann explained in court, adding that there was “a lot going on at this time in my life.” She emphasized what she had written about seeking freedom: “I was feeling very controlled.”
Through questions, Weinstein attorney Teny Geragos suggested that the note reflected Mann’s conflicted feelings about being involved with the then-married Weinstein. Mann has acknowledged the two had a consensual, on-again-off-again sexual relationship but alleges it descended into rape.
Weinstein’s lawyers maintain that everything that happened between the two was consensual and part of a supportive, caring relationship. They say Mann benefited from associating with an Oscar-winning producer, only later accusing him after allegations about him powered the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. He denies ever sexually assaulting anyone.
The first several hours of back-and-forth were tense but didn’t hit the emotional boiling points of Mann’s prior cross-examinations. By midafternoon Thursday, as she began to answer questions about the leadup to the alleged rape, Mann, 40, said she was feeling “spacey” from the stress of testifying. The court quickly took a break.
Geragos began questioning Mann on Wednesday by seizing on her complicated feelings about Weinstein.
Mann had said earlier that despite the alleged rape, she loved “a part of him” because he could be kind and encouraging about her personal struggles and professional dreams, and that the two had “some pretty human moments” together.
“What did he do for you that made parts of you really love him?” Geragos asked.
“It was the validation,” Mann said.
When Geragos went on to ask about the “human moments,” Mann said she once slapped Weinstein, thinking he was inviting it as sex play, but that he later told her, “Jess, that’s not you.”
“So when you were talking about the validation that you received … and the human moments that you shared with Harvey, it was that you slapped him?” Geragos asked.
Mann said she instead was referring to his remark that “that’s not you.”
Court ended for the day soon afterward. As it resumed Thursday, Geragos quizzed Mann about her early interactions with Weinstein.
Mann and Weinstein met at a Los Angeles-area party around early 2013. At the time, she was a financially struggling hairstylist and actor aspiring to make it big in show business.
The then-married Weinstein invited her to a bookstore, where he bought her volumes about movies. Not long afterward, he took her to dinner at a hotel in Beverly Hills, and other get-togethers followed.
Mann acknowledges that she accepted his sexual advances at times and decided to pursue a relationship with him. But she said he raped her in March 2013 in Manhattan — and then again some months later in Beverly Hills, California — as she protested and pleaded with him to stop. He has never been charged with any crime related to the California allegation.
“He just treated me like he owned me,” she told jurors this week.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be named, as Mann has done.
