Prison for bad actor
Judge rips 'role play' claim in sex attack
It’s curtains for a thespian wannabe who claimed he was just playing the part of a bad guy when he groped a woman at a Manhattan casting call.
Jerry Saint Florant was sentenced to four months in jail Tuesday by a judge who called his defense “ridiculous.”
Your assertion that you were just acting, by logic, is ridiculous,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber scolded.
Frantic 911 calls proved nobody else in the room believed he was role playing, Farber said.
“[You] knock over equipment, grab a young woman by her ankles, pull her legs up — knocking her backwards — and rub her inner thighs as she kicked you in self-defense,” the judge blasted, adding that Florant also tossed another woman against a wall.
“I heard from the traumatized victims that I do fully credit. I heard the panicked 911 calls played during the course of the trial,” Farber said.
He added, “No one in that room thought you were acting. You were not acting. However, you most likely were having some psychotic episode.”
But as the bad actor was escorted from the court in handcuffs, he insisted he’s simply misunderstood.
“It was just an acting audition and a big misunderstanding. You know justice is not being served. This is just a big misunderstanding,” he moaned. “Justice makes mistakes too.”
He added, “I’ve never done anything like this . . . God have mercy on my soul.”
Florant said he was answering a Midtown audition call at Nine9 the Unagency last year, when he jumped into character, lifted up a woman’s skirt and growled, “What if this was a rape scene?”
He later told a judge, “I can’t act like a nice person because that’s just who I am, so I had to come out of my character and prove I was an actor.”
On Tuesday, he was found guilty on seven misdemeanor counts, including attempted forcible touching, attempted as- sault and sex abuse. Florant has a “mental condition,” according to Farber.
“Left untreated, the risk of you acting out again is very real and causing a danger to society,” Florant warned.
The judge also tore into the twisted would-be thespian for failing to acknowledge the weight of his attack.
“These events were witnessed by many — and denied by you,” Florant said. “What is clear is that you were terrifying a room full of people and attacking two innocent, vulnerable women.”