NEW YORK — A woman who long steadfastly maintained that she was raped and groomed by Harvey Weinstein — and convinced a jury to convict him of the crime more than six years ago — took the witness stand in Manhattan on Monday to tell her story once again.

Jessica Mann’s first day of testimony at Weinstein’s rape retrial marked her third time addressing a Manhattan Supreme Court jury in six years. The disgraced mogul’s 2020 conviction for raping her and sexually assaulting a separate woman, Miriam Haley, was tossed in 2024 based on unrelated testimony. When he was tried again last year, a second set of jurors could not reach a unanimous conclusion on Mann’s allegations.

Under direct examination by Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg, Mann, now 40 years old, on Monday told jurors about her difficult childhood in rural Washington, beset by poverty and sexual abuse, and the complete absence of community support she had when she moved to Los Angeles in her mid-20s hoping to make it as an actor.

As she previously testified, the actress and hairstylist said she felt like her professional dreams were within reach when she introduced herself to Weinstein at a party in L.A. in February 2013. The Oscar-winning mogul fawned over how beautiful she was, describing her as prettier than the actress Natalie Portman.

“I thought I just got discovered,” Mann testified.

The once prolific filmmaker has faced accusations from scores of women since his downfall in 2017, when a flood of sexual misconduct allegations against him spurred the global #MeToo reckoning against workplace sexual harassment.

The seven men and five women hearing this case, though, will hear only from Mann, who stands alone as the sole alleged victim. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to a single count of third-degree rape alleging he attacked her at the DoubleTree Hotel on Lexington Ave. on March 18, 2013.

Mann on Monday said after an initial period of feeling like a mentee to the Hollywood kingmaker, Weinstein’s interest in her appeared to turn sexual, describing her awkward efforts to dodge his advances without destroying a promising new professional relationship.

When he lured her to a hotel room during their first time having dinner, Mann said she got around a pushy Weinstein trying to give her a massage by partially relenting and giving him one instead, saying it was “horrible” and disgusted her, but regardless felt like she had successfully de-escalated a charged moment.

“‘OK, that’ll just resolve the situation, and then I can leave, and it will be fine after that,'” Mann said of her thinking at the time, recalling how she told herself, “I won’t get in that situation again.”

While briefly feeling like she had Weinstein’s predation under control, like arranging to meet him in a public place for their next meeting, it wasn’t long before Weinstein pushed the boundaries again, Mann said, when she brought a friend, Talia, to an Oscars party he invited her to at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills. Weinstein told the young women he would get them cast in lead roles in a new film, “Vampire Academy,” and soon afterward invited them to his room to check out the script.

Once upstairs, Mann said Weinstein summoned her into his room and began forcefully kissing her, grabbing her by the elbow as she tried to wriggle free and told him she didn’t fool around with people she wasn’t in a relationship with.

She appeared on the verge of tears as she described what transpired and Weinstein commanding her onto the bed.

“Even when he sat me down, I didn’t know what he was gonna do to me,” Mann said. “He wouldn’t answer me.”

Mann said Weinstein would perform unwanted oral sex on her, conceding how, while “in shock and frozen,” she didn’t tell him no. She testified that to get the moment over and done with as fast as she could, she faked an orgasm and told Weinstein — 34 years her senior — what he wanted to hear, that it was the best she’d ever had.

The witness, her voice cracking, said Weinstein made his power over her crystal clear during the encounter, with thinly veiled remarks like: “My friends go far; my enemies don’t step a foot in this town.”

When the moment was over, Weinstein permitted her to leave.

“He said, ‘Are we good?’ I said, ‘Yeah.'”

Justice Curtis Farber instructed jurors that Weinstein was not facing any charges tied to the alleged incident at the Montage Hotel. He said if they found it credible, they could consider it as context when weighing the charged crime.

Mann, who took the stand shortly after 2 p.m., was expected to delve into the alleged attack central to the case in the coming days. She’s slated to face a third round of grueling cross-examination by Weinstein’s attorneys about what she’s described as a toxic, yearslong relationship that included sexual encounters she did not consent to, and other encounters she did.

Regardless of what the jury decides, Weinstein’s future in a prison cell is all but set in stone. He was convicted for the second time of sexually assaulting Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley at last year’s trial and could face up to 25 years in prison when sentenced in that case sometime this year.

And after his first trial in Manhattan, Weinstein received a term of 16 years in California after he was tried and convicted of separate rape and sexual assault charges. He is appealing both of those outcomes.

_____

©2026 New York Daily News. Visit at nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.