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The criminal trial against Jonathan Majors for alleged assault began with intense opening statements from both legal teams.
On Monday (December 4), opening statements in the trial against actor Jonathan Majors were delivered at New York Criminal Court. Majors has been accused of assaulting his ex-girlfriend, Grace Jabbari after being arrested on March 25 after a domestic dispute with Jabbari. Majors was present in the courtroom with family members including his mother and his current partner, actress Meagan Good.
Prosecutor Michael Perez began by detailing the relationship between the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania star and Jabbari, disclosing that they had met on the film set in 2021 and were together in “a serious relationship,” even discussing marriage. Perez then detailed the dispute that took place on March 25, which occurred after the couple attended a party in Brooklyn where a text from another woman sparked an argument where Majors allegedly injured Jabbari once they reached their Manhattan apartment.
The prosecution would go on to paint Jonathan Majors as an abuser with Perez stating: “He began to snap at, manipulate and strategically withhold affection from [Jabbari].” “This affected their entire relationship and how she reacted on March 25,” he said. In a recording of a fight that prosecutors plan to play for the jury, it’s alleged that Majors told Jabbari, who is white, that she should be more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama and “to conform to the plan and make sacrifices for him” saying it’s because “I am a great man, a great man.”
Majors’ lawyer, Priya Chaudhry, contended in her opening statement that the previous relationship had “nothing to do with what happened in the car.” Chaudhry told jurors it was Jabbari who attacked Majors physically first, telling police who arrived at the Manhattan residence the two shared that he assaulted her. In previous interrogations, Majors told the NYPD that he had called them since Jabbari was “suicidal” in her texts.
The defense would state that the allegations were born out of Jabbari’s revenge against Majors. Mr. Majors’ lifetime of hard work was coming to fruition and his career seemed unstoppable until […] he ended his relationship with Jabbari and she made these false allegations,” Chaudhry stated. Jabbari is expected to testify during the two weeks of the trial. Majors, who has pleaded not guilty, faces a year in jail if convicted.
