Jonathan Majors ex-girlfriend continues testimony: “It feels like the abuse I was in hasn’t ended”
Jonathan Majors' ex, Grace Jabbari, continued her testimony in the assault trial on Wednesday
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Jonathan Majors’ ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari, shared her perspective about the events of March 25 and the aftermath in testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday. Majors faces charges of assault and aggravated harassment after an altercation between them in a moving vehicle. Both the prosecution and defense agree that Jabbari noticed a text message on his phone and then grabbed it from his hands. But Majors and Jabbari have differing accounts of how the altercation unfolded.
Jabbari testified that she noticed a message on Majors’ screen from someone called “Cleopatra” that read “Oh, how I wish to be kissing you.” Majors insisted that “it’s not what it looks like,” but Jabbari was “taken aback”: “Of all the problems in the relationship, I never thought that infidelity would be one of them,” she said (via Business Insider).
Jabbari grabbed the phone to see the messages, and then “felt the weight of him on top of me. I felt him trying to pry the phone away from me,” she recounted. “Next, I felt like a really hard blow across my head. It felt like a hard impact to the back of my head. I felt a lot of pain and I sat back and that’s when he got the phone back from my hand.” The defense has claimed that Jabbari was the aggressor and tore the actor’s jacket; Jabbari admitted that in the struggle “I grabbed him and pulled the button off his jacket and he yelled, became angry and yelled, ‘Look what you have done.’”
Jabbari said she tried multiple times to get out of the car, and in one instance Majors forcibly threw her back in “like a football.” When she finally got out of the vehicle, she left with strangers who promised to help get her a ride. She went with them to a birthday party, where she had some shots and bought her helpers champagne (per The Daily Beast). Majors, meanwhile, retreated to a hotel and texted her to break up.
Jabbari’s testimony indicates that both she and Majors were conflicted about the end of their relationship—he allegedly called to say he loved her and didn’t cheat, but said he’d deleted “Cleopatra’s” messages, so Jabbari hung up. She then felt she’d “been irrational” for cutting off their conversation and tried “for a really long time” to get back in touch. When he didn’t respond, she took sleeping pills to go to bed, but woke up a few hours later in “pain” and went to the bathroom. According to The Daily Beast, Jabbari testified that she passed out on the bathroom floor after throwing up from exhaustion and pain.
When she woke up, she was surrounded by law enforcement officers (as Majors had called 911 after returning to their apartment and finding her on the floor). “I was totally overwhelmed,” she said. “The last thing I had in my memory was being alone, being safe-ish. And this was so overwhelming. Being a woman, half-naked, and surrounded by strange men, was not the nicest feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
Jabbari, who is white, hesitated to fully explain the situation upon waking up: “I think just things he had told me in the past about not trusting the police and what they would do to him as a Black man, and I didn’t want to put him in that situation. I wanted to say, ‘Help me, please.’” She claimed she alluded to her trouble “in the safest way I felt possible,” but was aware of Majors being in the next room. “I didn’t want to say exactly what happened, but I also saw this as a moment to have a bit of help in leaving the relationship. I was just really scared.”
Even after she was taken to the hospital, and after she left the hospital, Jabbari says she felt “guilty” that she had told on Majors; when she found out he was arrested, she felt like it was “her fault.” “It was so confusing, and I loved him still. I felt like I should have lied and said nothing happened so that he wasn’t in trouble. I knew that he would be upset with me, and I just wanted to fix it.”
Jabbari reportedly cried as she reflected on the impact of the highly publicized case, as well as her own arrest (following Majors’ cross-complaint). “There’s just been a lot of unwanted attention about a very difficult period of my life,” she said (via People). “I’m a very private person. It’s been really hard, the show of it all. It feels like the abuse I was in hasn’t ended.”
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Based on this summary, I’m skeptical that Jabbari’s testimony was especially persuasive to a jury.It doesn’t sound like her account of what happened after the alleged assault is very credible. She attributed passing out to “exhaustion and pain,” as if it was a random medical event. But it’s pretty clear it occurred because she took sleeping pills. Her testimony about waking up after Majors called 9-1-1 is similarly unhelpful “I was totally overwhelmed,” she said. “The last thing I had in my memory was being alone, being safe-ish. And this was so overwhelming. Being a woman, half-naked, and surrounded by strange men, was not the nicest feeling I’ve ever experienced in my life.”Whatever happened with Majors when the couple had an argument in the car, Majors seemed to have handled finding Jabbari on the floor the exact way he was supposed to. Behaving well at that time obviously doesn’t mean Majors didn’t assault Jabbari earlier. But Jabbari seems eager to blame Majors for his actions here too, suggesting she was revictimized by being surrounded by emergency responders. But she wasn’t “safe-ish” before — she had taken sleeping pills and passed on the floor. And while it’s surely uncomfortable to wake up naked and surrounded by first responders, that’s the inevitable result of Majors behaving (at least in this part of their interactions) the way he was supposed to when seeing Jabbari in apparent danger.When testifying, you’re generally supposed to own bad facts. None of what happened after the confrontation between the two seems to be particularly in dispute, and none of it is direct evidence of whether the assault occurred, so Jabbari should just own it. Instead, she seems to be fighting facts she doesn’t like, in a way that may undermine her credibility more generally. If she can’t own up to taking sleeping pills in a dangerous way, who is to say she is telling the truth about Majors?
I’m just waiting for the defense to show the video footage that they say exonerates their client.Although, at this point, I think Majors’s reputation has taken a hit from which it will never fully recover. Not solely due to Jabbari’s statements and evidence (although that “I am a great man” stuff… whew), but mainly due to other statements and accusations that have surfaced after this assault became public knowledge.
His reputation will eventually recover. It’ll take time, but it will.How do I know this?Chris Brown.
Chris Brown’s reputation was never harmed. The thug cred only made his brand stronger.
While it’s mostly been rehabilitated, I think his reputation is still somewhat worse now than it was before his domestic assault conviction in 2009. (Has it really been only 14 years? It feels like a lifetime ago.) And no doubt reconciling with Rhianna helped the process along.If no other disturbing revelations about Majors come out, I think he could likely reach a similar level of acceptance that Brown currently has, especially if he and Jabbari also reconcile at some point down the road. But there will always be people pointing out his abusive and megalomaniacal behavior any time he gets a role or an award or a speaking engagement in the future.
Yeah, Majors certainly does not come across as a likeable or relatable person. And he seems to have his own issues with being overeager to present himself in the most positive light possible, even in ways that are so implausible that they make him seem untrustworthy.He apparently read a Bible during Jabbari’s testimony. By not paying attention, Majors seems to show disdain for Jabbari and the court proceedings in general. And I doubt many jurors, particularly on a more jaded New York jury, are likely to think, “How can a nice boy who reads the Bible be guilty,” as opposed to, “Does that dipshit think we’re really going to buy the piety act?”
It’s a seriously shitbag move. Planned in advance as if it were some brilliant bit of stagecraft. I look forward to him nursing an infant next.
‘Please present your testimony Mr Majors’‘Oh, I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of this orphan baby suckling on my teat’
I so wish a reporter had asked him which Bible passages he chose to read during her testimony, and what he got from them.
“I was reading about another good man who was falsely accused, put on trial, and suffered outrageously. You might know him as JESUS!”
It only takes one juror.
Emphasis on your last sentence. I know if I was on that jury, I’d react more negatively to him reading a Bible during Jabbari’s testimony than if he was reading, say, a TV Guide.
“He apparently read a Bible during Jabbari’s testimony.”Holy shit he needs to fire his lawyers if they let him get away with that. That had to make him look absolutely awful to the jury.
If he’s acquitted, he’ll probably follow Johnny Depp’s example and sue the victim for defamation. These guys have no shame.
YOU SUPOORT AMBER TURD JUST SAY YOU SUPPORT AMBER THE ABUSER YOU FEMINISTS SHITS HAVE NO SHAME
Last I recall, that “video”, like many other things Majors’ legal team claimed to have, were entirely fabricated and never actually existed.
The defense has not presented yet. That is when the video will be shown.I don’t know how anyone can be on her side at this point. She was arrested but not charged, so there is some evidence she was somewhat at fault. Arrests have merit.Her testimony is also a horrendous. She never said he touched her before that night but he did yell in arguments. On the night in question, she was likely drunk when he got the text and got aggressive. After that, she got more drunk then took sleeping pills on top of it.He called the ambulance for his drunk and high girlfriend who he found passed out on the bathroom floor, and she is saying that is abuse of her. What the hell?I am at a loss for words over how this was allowed to destroy this man.
That would be a shame; those text messages that the defense released, that they claimed would show that Jabbari disavowed the assault, actually fit perfectly in the narrative of Majors being an abusive manipulator, and I expected much the same from the purported video.
I’m a former domestic violence prosecutor, and I think your analysis is correct. I agree that witnesses should own their mistakes; doing that definitely helps credibility. One thing I saw pretty often was that, if a victim was a user of any kind of controlled substance, juries basically treated them as if they deserved whatever happened to them. I hope the prosecution uses an expert witness who can explain to the jury the psychology of abuse, how victims commonly behave (which isn’t necessarily what one might expect), and why men use abuse to control their partners.I was also happy to see that Ms. Carr and her editor refrained from using the awful term “accuser.” We’re making progress.
What’s wrong with “accuser”? It’s an accurate description and is essentially what the word “prosecutor” means. Also, what would be a better term? “Victim” by itself seems to presume guilt. “Alleged victim” would be accurate but people already mock “allegedly” so it would get the same treatment. I don’t have a strong opinion on the subject myself, I just like to have a plethora of synonyms available because repetition of a single word is a pet peeve of mine.
Whether or not exactly what she claimed to have happened did in fact happen, the guy is clearly a pos.
When she finally got out of the vehicle, she left with strangers who
promised to help get her a ride. She went with them to a birthday party,
where she had some shots and bought her helpers champagne (per The Daily Beast).
This seems like a pretty important aspect of the incident. Were the strangers identified and called to testify? I feel like testimony from the strangers in question could have a big impact on either side.
Also who in the world takes off with complete strangers, getting away from a bad situation I understand, but then ends up staying with them to go to a birthday party and get drunk. It doesn’t discount what she said but that is a REALLY fucking strange thing to do with a bunch of strangers.
Exactly! Not that this is a smoking gun, type of case, but testimony from the strangers could definitely frame that situation that would benefit either side. Also anyone that was at that party she was taken to, come to think of it.
Sounds like the start of a really fun evening to me.
I mean maybe, but I don’t know if I would just jump in a random strangers car and then proceed to spend what I would assume is hours running around with them. That reads more like they were friends she maybe called to get her, than complete strangers.
I thought you meant that would be a strange thing to do even if it didn’t happen immediately after what she says happened in the cab, but frankly it doesn’t sound very unusual to me. I’ve read a lot of accounts about how victims behave after any type of assault, and there seems to be an instinct to go into a kind of shock and pretend like nothing bad just happened. I’ve never been assaulted and then immediately partied with strangers (I’m also not a woman), but I’ve been in frightening situations and I remember feeling confused immediately afterwards. I probably didn’t “act” the way people would expect.Plus there’s also the fact that she was allegedly attacked by her boyfriend. Most attacks are perpetrated by people the victims know. You’re more likely to be shot by a family member (or yourself) if you live in a household with a gun than by a complete stranger, for example. If her allegations are true, I wonder if she knows the statistics and in that moment was like, “I’m probably safer with strangers than getting back in the cab with this guy.”Wasn’t there, presumption of innocence, blah blah blah. One way or the other, I’m expecting both the prosecution and the defense to call those strangers as witnesses.
No I mean her getting in a car with strangers is odd, but not in this case as she was escaping a situation she believed was dangerous, being assaulted, allegedly by her boyfriend, for the record I do believe her. The part that strikes me as strange is then going on to spend presumable multiple hours with said strangers, at another strangers birthday party. She can do what she likes, and I am not doubting her because she went and partied, but it just seems very strange on the surface.
I don’t think so, meeting up and hanging with strangers is exactly the rando, fun stuff my friends and I got up to at times when young. Some of those random meetings actually lead to years long friendships. And there’s no one right way to respond to trauma and abuse, wanting to just (try to) “drown it out” with fun and booze sounds like a very normal response to me.
Fair enough, I am not trying to criticize her or anything, just at least to me, it sounds like they were presumably stopped, somewhere, argument/fight happened, she go out and flagged to the first rando she saw and took off with them for multiple hours. Nothing wrong with it, just seems strange, it’s not like they were hanging at a say bar or something and chatting with randos, and then going to party.
Reading a different article, she stayed because ‘I Didn’t Want to Be Alone’. Crappy source