Jonathan Majors grabbed and hit his former girlfriend Grace Jabbari “to cover up his infidelity,†Manhattan prosecutor Michael Perez said during openings in the actor’s domestic-abuse trial on the morning of December 4. Majors engaged in a “cruel and manipulative pattern of psychological and physical abuse†throughout their relationship of two years and used “physical violence against her to manipulate her, control her, and physically hurt her,†Perez said. He told jurors that an altercation unfolded late March 24 into the next morning. While driving to Manhattan after a dinner in Brooklyn, Jabbari claims she was leaning her head on Majors’s left shoulder while he scrolled on his phone when she saw a message “from someone named Cleopatra.†The missive “read, in sum and substance, ‘I wish I was kissing you’ — referring to a D’Angelo song called “Lady,†Perez said.
“Stunned when she saw the message, as most people would be, Ms. Jabbari grabbed the phone … but the defendant needed to be in control,†Perez said. “He began grabbing at Ms. Jabbari’s body. He pulled her right arm behind her back and twisted it … he struck a blow that struck across the right side of her head. Because of that strike, the defendant was able to grab his phone.†Majors’s physical attempt to hide his cheating caused Jabbari bruising, swelling, “substantial pain,†and a broken finger, Perez claimed.
After this altercation in the privately hired Escalade, the car came to a stop around the intersection of Canal and Centre Streets. Majors got out and Jabbari tried to follow him, Perez said. “There was no hesitation of him using physical force with him once again.†He used “both his hands†to pick up Jabbari and “shove her back into the Escalade.†At some point, Majors grabbed her hand and brought her across the street, then he “sprinted down the streets of Manhattan.†A group of strangers who encountered Jabbari, seeing her upset, took her out to console her. She then went home. When Majors returned to their Chelsea apartment the next day to find Jabbari sleeping in their closet, he called his manager and then dialed 911, Perez said. Officers responded and questioned them. Noting Majors had no injuries, they arrested him, Perez said.
In Perez’s telling, the scrape was part and parcel of a relationship that started to turn ugly two months in. Among other alleged examples of abusive behavior and manipulation, Perez said that Majors “threw household items at the wall, shattering glass,†in July 2022 after getting upset at Jabbari. That September, Majors was angry that she brought a female friend home after going to a pub. The next morning, when Jabbari went for a run, he “pulled out the headphones from [her] ears and told her, ‘You’re stupid if you don’t know what you did wrong.’â€
Majors held Jabbari to impossible standards, allegedly telling her that she “needs to live up to the standards of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King’s wife, and Michelle Obama.†In one conversation, Majors said, “I am a great man — a great man,†Perez said, explaining how he “demanded from Grace Jabbari total compliance.â€
Majors’s defense, not surprisingly, said that he was the real victim in their opening. “Two people are in the back of a car. They have a seconds-long physical altercation over a text message on a cell phone. One person emerges from the car with a bloody gash, scratched and scared, and begins running fast to get away,†lawyer Priya Chaudhry told jurors. “The other person emerges unscathed and unhurt and gives chase on foot through traffic like in a movie.†Chaudhry said that Majors was “the only person who emerged from the car bloodied or hurt. The one who was slapped, clawed, and scratched by Grace Jabbari in a way that made the driver — the only witness to this event — describe Ms. Jabbari as ‘psycho-girl.’†During her opening, Chaudhry also hinted that racism played a role in Jabbari being seen as a victim, which is consistent with her prior claim that the proceedings were “saturated with explicit and implicit bias.†Chaudry said, for example, that there wasn’t a speck of blood on Jabbari’s “blonde hair†and “not a mark on her fair face†after the altercation. She portrayed Jabbari as unstable, noting that the choreographer “called Mr. Majors 32 times and sent him texts like ‘I guess you’re with Cleopatra right now. We were supposed to get married. How could you do this to me?†Jabbari “took some blue pills†and was so intoxicated that she vomited in their bed. Then came yet another invocation of race. Chaudhry said that Majors, “a Black man who found his girlfriend unconscious in his closet, in America, called the police for help,†only to find himself arrested moments later.
Majors, who is charged with assaulting and harassing Jabbari, arrived to court before 10 a.m.. He sported a tilted black beret and a similarly hued overcoat with deep-blue piping on the sleeves, as well as sunglasses. As usual, Majors arrived hand in hand with his rumored girlfriend, Meagan Good. She wore an evening-gown-like black dress with a low neckline and cutouts. In the gallery directly behind the defense table, Majors’s supporters packed two rows of benches that had been marked “RESERVED†with white sheets of paper. Before proceedings began, the prosecution told Judge Michael Gaffney that they wanted to throw out four counts, citing the “nature of the injuries and the facts that we’re alleging in this particular case.†Gaffney agreed to dismiss them, so Majors now faces one count each of intentional assault, reckless assault, aggravated harassment, and harassment.