The producer’s accuser Harvey Weinstein for alleged rape, Jessica Mann, He testified before a jury in Manhattan in the trial against the former tycoon. It is the third time in six years that the actress and stylist has appeared in court to testify how she was allegedly sexually assaulted by the film producer in a New York hotel room in 2013.
The former Hollywood mogul trapped her in a hotel room and abused her despite her pleas to stop, she told the court.
“I told him ‘no’ over and over again, and tried to leave. He treated me like I was his property,” Jessica Mann declared to the jury.
Mann testified for two days in Harvey Weinstein’s third sex crimes trial in New York, a process that arose after the overturning of his initial conviction and a subsequent jury that failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Mann met Harvey Weinstein in 2013 because they both moved in the same work circle. They attended events and, according to Mann, there were advances from Weinstein that made her uncomfortable but which she did not reject at the time. Then the actress decided to have a consensual sexual encounter with the producer.
The relationship between the two was complicated and toxic, in which the producer often flaunted his influence in Hollywood and did not take no for an answer.
According to Mann’s testimony, in March 2013 she joined a friend’s work trip and stayed at a New York hotel. To their surprise, Weinstein stayed at the same hotel without prior notice. Mann said she accompanied him to his room to talk privately but that the former movie mogul ordered her to undress, restrained her hands and forced her to have sex despite her refusal.
“I begged him: ‘Please, don’t do it, I don’t want to,’ and I tried to open the door twice, but he slammed it shut, grabbed my wrists and crossed them in front of my face,” she said.
Mann assured that at that moment he decided not to continue fighting and gave up on the situation. “It was very scary, so I remember just… shutting down and giving up, because I had been fighting and arguing. So I obeyed,” the witness testified.
After that, the actress continued to have contact with the producer, agreed to extend her stay in New York and maintained contact through cordial emails in an attempt to regain “normality.”
Producer Harvey Weinstein became one of the main targets of the #MeToo movement more than a decade ago against inappropriate sexual behavior in Hollywood.
In 2020, Weinstein was found guilty of third-degree rape against Mann and production assistant Miriam Haley. The producer was sentenced to 23 years in prison. However, in 2024 the verdict was annulled. In a new trial in 2025, Weinstein was convicted of assaulting Haley but failed to reach a plea deal on the charge involving Mann, forcing prosecutors to try the case for a third time.
At the moment, Weinstein is serving a 16-year prison sentence. The producer was accused of sexually assaulting four women between 2004 and 2013 in hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles.
In 2022 he was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and sexual penetration against a woman. However, he was acquitted of related charges against one of the victims and the jury could not reach an agreement on charges brought by two other women.
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· Harvey Weinstein is found guilty of one count of sexual assault