Jessica Mann’s testimony a new kind of test in sex crimes
NEW YORK: Jessica Mann thanked Harvey Weinstein often throughout their five-year relationship.
The aspiring actress, who met Weinstein in her late 20s, expressed gratitude to him for her many invitations to hotticket Hollywood parties.
For solving her personal problems, like a jam she was in for getting too many parking tickets.
For getting her a job working for a celebrity hairstylist. And for making her feel pretty. “I appreciate all you do for me,” Mann wrote to Weinstein, in an April 12, 2013, email.
“It shows.”
That message was sent less than a month after she says she was violently raped by him, during a trip to New York with friends around St. Patrick’s Day, she recently told a Manhattan jury.
The allegations, like others at his trial, were not reported until after the New York Times and the New Yorker published stories with multiple allegations against Weinstein and the #MeToo movement became a cultural phenomenon in late 2017.
According to Weinstein’s defense team, the flattering note – one of many defence exhibits including Mann’s own problematic words – undercuts the logic that she was pushed into a sexual relationship with the 67-year-old against her will.
Prosecutors meanwhile argued that the actress was the victim of manipulation, and was prevented from acting freely by the power gap between Weinstein, a major Hollywood producer, and Mann, an unknown aspiring actress.
They also pointed to their physical differences: Weinstein was overweight, and cut an imposing figure; Mann, at roughly 5-foot-5, weighed about 105 pounds.
Mann is not the most famous person who has taken the stand in Weinstein’s trial, but her three days of testimony have provided many of its most dramatic moments.
She was at times contentious during cross examination, often broke into tears and at one point Judge James Burke ended a day’s session early when she was unable to compose herself.
And her mere presence as a witness for the prosecution signals what could be a major change in how sexual assault cases are tried, as her admitted consensual sexual relationship with Weinstein, both before and after the alleged assaults, makes her a traditionally imperfect witness.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has taken a gamble on Mann, hoping that her words may be enough to convict Weinstein, despite sometimes extenuating circumstances.
Laura Brevetti, a former federal prosecutor who has also handled sex crimes at the state level, said Mann’s testimony, in particular, marks a potential shift in the type of cases prosecutors are willing to pursue.
“Years ago, I would say her allegations would not be brought,” she said.
According to Brevetti, this case – and the many evidentiary rulings that have allowed testimony and records benefiting both sides – is testing the judge, the court and the system itself.
“I do believe it’s pushing, to use a common phrase, the envelope,” she said.
Jurors heard hours of intimate details about the relationship between the film mogul and Mann, who moved to Los Angeles at age 25 with silver-screen dreams.
Mann testified that Weinstein told her she was more beautiful than Natalie Portman, and that he gave her hope for her future as an actress.
Prosecutors Joan IlluzziOrbon and Meghan Hast argued that her audition for “Vampire Academy,” a 2014 film produced by Weinstein’s company, was a sham – that Mann was too old for the role and was never taken seriously.
Veteran casting director Marci Liroff, who took the witness stand after Mann, confirmed that Mann and her friend Talita Maia auditioned, but weren’t serious prospects.
“You guys are perfect for this film I am producing,” Weinstein told the young women, who were significantly older than the teenage characters they were trying out for, according to testimony.
“It’s a vampire film and you would both make perfect leads.”
The defence suggested that Mann had, instead, bombed at her reading.
Weinstein’s attorneys had her audition tape, but Burke refused to let them play it. Prosecutors insist that Weinstein was playing her – that he had no intention of making her a star.
Weinstein didn’t deny Mann a career in the business, the defence team suggested in its questioning.