Former actress Jessica Mann, now 40, testified for a third day in the New York retrial of Harvey Weinstein, describing what she said were violent and coercive encounters in 2013.
Mann recounted an episode she says occurred at the Doubletree Hotel in Midtown on March 18, 2013, in which she alleges Weinstein forced a sexual encounter involving an Italian actress. She broke down repeatedly while describing trying to leave a hotel room and being prevented from doing so. Mann said Weinstein pulled her aside in the lobby after arriving early, grabbed her and warned, “Don’t embarrass me in public,” then took her to a room where the situation became violent. She testified she tried to force the door open twice, but he slammed it and trapped her, ordering, “Undress now!” and grabbing both her arms when she resisted. “He just treated me like he owned me,” she told the court.
Mann also described a separate February 2013 episode at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel, saying Weinstein allegedly attempted to direct her into a threesome with Italian-born actress Emanuela Postacchini. Mann testified she panicked, ran into a bathroom and had a “full-on breakdown.” She said that earlier in 2013 she had at times been in a consensual relationship with Weinstein because she hoped it might develop into something more.
She further testified about another incident later in 2013, alleging that Weinstein raped her after she told him she had found true “love” with an actor, and that she lost consciousness beneath his weight.
Mann’s testimony comes amid a long legal saga. Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was later overturned on unrelated grounds. He was retried in Manhattan last year and convicted on a different sexual-assault charge, but the jury deadlocked on the specific rape charge tied to Mann, prompting the current New York retrial.
Throughout her testimony Mann repeatedly became emotional as she recounted the events, saying they left her traumatized and shaped her view of Weinstein, whom she had once seen as a mentor after an initial meeting in Los Angeles when she believed she had been discovered.