Actor Jonathan Majors arrives at court for his domestic assault trial, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023, in New York. Majors was charged last spring for allegedly assaulting his then-girlfriend during an argument. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews)
NEW YORK (AP) – An attorney for Jonathan Majors presented grainy security footage from a Manhattan nightclub in efforts to cast doubt on the accuser’s claim she suffered “excruciating” pain and injuries following an alleged assault by the actor last spring.
The video compilation, played to a jury over several hours during the fourth day of trial on Thursday, showed accuser Grace Jabbari partying with a group of strangers she met on a street corner immediately after the confrontation with Majors in the backseat of a car.
Jabbari, a 30-year-old British choreographer, has accused Majors of striking her on the side of the head and squeezing her hand until her middle finger fractured amid a dispute that began after she read a romantic text on his phone sent by another woman.
The charges have derailed Majors’ budding Hollywood career, lending unusual stakes to a misdemeanor trial as the actor aims to salvage his reputation and future parts ““ including a now uncertain role as the supervillain “Kang the Conqueror” in two upcoming Marvel films.
Testifying for the third straight day, Jabbari was peppered with questions by Majors’ attorney about video clips that showed her using her injured hand for tasks like lifting a champagne glass, rifling through her bag, or brushing locks of hair behind her ear.
“You picked up the lime with your right hand?” the attorney, Priya Chaudhry, asked in one of many similar exchanges. “And you put the lime in your mouth? You sucked on the lime and then you put the rest of the lime rind back on the bar with your right hand, correct?”
Jabbari responded that she was running on adrenaline and shock following the assault and did not realize the extent of her injuries until she woke up the next morning and “felt like I got hit by a bus.”
During the testimony, Majors looked on impassively, craning his neck at points to watch the video clips. Jabbari fled the witness stand in tears on multiple occasions during the cross-examination.
In the immediate aftermath of the altercation with Majors, Jabbari said she met three strangers on a Manhattan sidewalk who offered to help her get home. In surveillance videos, one of the bystanders can be seen confronting Majors, who briefly returned to the scene and gestured for Jabbari to get back in the car, before leaving again.
Feeling distraught and not wanting to be alone, Jabbari said she accompanied the three strangers to a nightclub called Loosie’s, where she ordered a bottle of champagne and a round of shots with her new friends.
“I wasn’t focusing on pain. I was just trying to have a nice time,” she said. “There were these lovely people there and I felt safe with them.”
Chaudhry has suggested that Jabbari would not have gone to the club if she was as hurt as she claimed, at points implying that the accuser may have injured herself later in the night while intoxicated.
Prior to the start of the trial, the defense attorney circulated video footage of Jabbari at the nightclub to the press, claiming it provided “irrefutable” evidence that the case against Majors was a “witch hunt.”
Prosecutors have accused Majors of directing a “cruel and manipulative” pattern of abuse against Jabbari, culminating with the assault in the backseat of the car.
