A frail Harvey Weinstein was wheeled into a New York City courtroom on Tuesday morning to face his fourth rape trial in six years.
Weinstein is accused in this case of assaulting Jessica Mann, who has testified at two previous trials that the producer raped her at a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013.
Weinstein was convicted of the third-degree rape of Mann in 2020, but that verdict was overturned by the state’s highest court. At a retrial last summer, jurors found Weinstein guilty of assaulting another victim, Miriam Haley, but deadlocked on the charge relating to Mann, forcing prosecutors to try the charge for a third time.
Assistant District Attorney Candace White told jurors in her opening statement Tuesday that the case comes down to “power, control, and manipulation.”
“In 2013, the defendant believed it was his world and everyone else was just living in it,” White said.
Mann first met Weinstein at an engagement party in February 2013, six weeks before the alleged rape. White said that Mann, an aspiring actress at the time, was “preyed upon” by the powerful producer.
Defense attorney Jacob Kaplan argued that the case is actually about “consent and choice,” and quoted from several emails Mann sent to Weinstein. In them, Mann wrote “Appreciate all you do for me,” and “Miss you, big guy.”
“This case will be her word against her own word,” Kaplan said.
Kaplan described Weinstein as a “creative visionary” and a “magnetic personality,” and argued that Mann consciously chose to put herself in his orbit.
Mann “knew what she wanted, and she knew how to get it,” he said, noting that it’s undisputed that she and Weinstein had consensual sex several times. “Her choice to make, and she made that choice over and over again.”
The jury of seven men and five women was selected last week. There are also six alternates. The trial is expected to run into the second week of May.
Weinstein was also convicted of raping an Italian model at a trial in Los Angeles in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years. That case is on appeal. He has been held in jails in New York and Los Angeles, and for a time in New York state prison, since his first conviction in 2020.
Add comment