Accuser gestures at Harvey Weinstein in courtroom confrontation
By JENNIFER PELTZ Associated Press NEW YORK AP A key witness stared down Harvey Weinstein and pointed sharply at him as she left court in sobs Tuesday marking one of the majority heated moments of the former studio boss sex crimes retrial The confrontational moment came after Jessica Mann described Weinstein grabbing dragging forcefully undressing and raping her in a Beverly Hills California hotel room around the beginning of after she narrated him she was dating someone else You owe me one more time Weinstein bellowed according to Mann who wiped her eyes and took heaving breaths as she testified Weinstein who denies ever raping or sexually assaulting anyone briefly shook his head as he watched from the defense table After Mann finished her narrative she continued crying and didn t answer when a prosecutor sought whether she needed a break Judge Curtis Farber called for one When Mann passed the defense table on her way out she turned toward the seated Weinstein aimed a finger at her eyes and then at him It wasn t clear how a large number of jurors saw the gesture and Mann didn t respond to a question outside court about what she meant to convey Harvey Weinstein appears in state court in Manhattan for his retrial on Tuesday May in New York Curtis Means Pool Photo via AP After they left Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala made the latest of more than a half-dozen requests for a mistrial He cited Mann s gesticulation questioned her displays of emotion and complained that she shouldn t have been demanded about the alleged Los Angeles rape as Weinstein isn t really charged with it The Oscar-winning producer is charged with raping Mann on another occasion in in New York and forcing oral sex on two other women separately in He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges Farber denied the mistrial request He ruled before the trial that Mann and the other two women could put the charges in the context of their other interactions with Weinstein including other times when he allegedly made unwanted advances As for Mann s gesture I can t control what people do in the courtroom nor what jurors may make of it Farber disclosed suggesting that Mann be narrated not to make any more such moves The judge noted that he had also seen Weinstein react visibly and mutter at times during the trial Mann returned to the witness stand without looking at Weinstein who watched her stone-faced She resumed testifying through an edgy morning This is my response she interjected at one point when Aidala raised a legal objection to her answer to a prosecutor s question Actress Jessica Mann center arrives to testify in Harvey Weinstein s rape and sexual assault trial Monday May in New York AP Photo Stefan Jeremiah Aidala hasn t yet has his turn to question Mann about her fraught and complex history with Weinstein During an opening declaration last month the attorney portrayed her as an aspiring actor who had only willing sexual encounters with a Hollywood bigwig she thought could help her A cosmetologist and hairstylist she met Weinstein socially in Los Angeles over a decade ago when she was trying to get acting work Related Articles Video of the Nottoway Plantation fire sparks jubilation It s about anger and pain over slavery too Southwest Airlines will require chargers be kept out while in use because of battery fire concerns Caitlin Clark says it was too loud to hear alleged racial comments but supports WNBA study Cassie s mother says Sean Diddy Combs demanded K because her daughter was seeing someone else Organizations and companies are partnering to introduce Black students in Detroit to golf Mann disclosed she had a consensual on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein but that he was volatile and violated her if she refused him Weinstein went from movie mogul to MeToo pariah in after charges emerged that he had sexually harassed and sexually abused women for years He was later convicted of various sex crimes in both New York and California but his New York conviction was later overturned leading to the retrial The proceedings have been graphic exhaustively detailed and tense at times as his accusers underwent days of questioning One of them Miriam Haley cursed at Weinstein from the witness stand Another Kaja Sokola was dismayed by questions about her private journal which Weinstein s lawyers had gotten without her knowledge The Associated Press generally does not identify people who alleged they have been sexually assaulted unless they agree to be identified Haley Mann and Sokola have done so Associated Press video journalist Joseph B Frederick contributed
