Jonathan Majors’ Assault Trial: Opening Arguments Address Race and Alleged 'Abuse'

The actor is charged with two counts of assault in the third degree, aggravated harassment in the second degree and harassment in the second degree

Shortly after meeting on the set of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, actor Jonathan Majors asked for choreographer Grace Jabbari’s phone number.

In the beginning of what became a two-year relationship, Majors wrote Jabbari love notes, prosecutors at his assault trial between the now-split couple, told the Manhattan jury Monday.

But, within months “the defendant’s true self began to emerge,” assistant district attorney Michael Perez said in opening statements, claiming that the actor “engaged in a cruel and manipulative pattern of psychological and physical abuse that culminated in the tragic end of their relationship," even allegedly threatening suicide after fights to control the dancer's reactions.

In one fight recorded by Jabbari and which prosecutors plan to play for the jury, Majors, who is Black, allegedly told his then-girlfriend, who is White, that he wanted her to be more like Coretta Scott King and Michelle Obama and “to conform to the plan and make sacrifices for him,” Perez alleged, adding that Majors had allegedly explained to Jabbari that he deserved such differential treatment because: “I am a great man, a great man.”

Related: A Timeline of Jonathan Majors' Legal Troubles: From His March Arrest to Trial Over Alleged Assault

Majors, now 34, is facing charges of assault in the third degree with intent to cause physical injury, assault in the third degree recklessly causing physical injury, aggravated harassment in the second degree and harassment in the second degree, in connection with an alleged fight between the couple that spilled onto the streets of Chinatown in March.

Majors has pleaded not guilty to the charges. If convicted he could be behind bars for up to one year.

Dressed in a black coat with silver buttons and a dark beret, Majors arrived in Manhattan’s criminal court hand-in-hand between his mother and girlfriend Meagan Good Monday morning.

Good's relationship with the Marvel actor began shortly after his arrest on the misdemeanor charges, She was joined in court by her own mother, as well as Good’s sister and several close friends of the couple, who had filled the first two rows behind the defense before opening statements Monday morning.

Although Good has not commented on her boyfriend’s case since coming daily to court last week ahead of jury selection, in the courtroom she has reacted to prosecutors and prospective jurors with expressive facial expressions and quiet comments under her breath.

Last week, one prospective juror, a White woman who works with the Innocence Project and was not ultimately selected for the jury, said she had concerns about weighing allegations by White women against Black men, given the problematic history of the way such accusations are processed through the legal system. “Yes,” Good responded, rolling her eyes.

And in opening statements Monday, Priya Chaudhry, one of Majors’s defense lawyers, brought the racial dynamics of the former couple’s case front and center, noting that in surveillance footage after the alleged attack, Jabbari did not have “a speck of blood” in “her blond hair, no blood on her fair face.”

The assault case started on a Saturday morning in March, when police responded to a 911 call involving what the NYPD then described to PEOPLE as “a domestic dispute” between Majors and the woman later identified as Jabbari.

In the complaint obtained by PEOPLE and which includes Jabbari’s statements describing her alleged injuries, the woman alleged that in the course of the argument Jabbari felt him “grab my right arm, place it behind my body, and use his hands to twist my right forearm and right middle finger” and then proceeded to “strike me with his hand across my right ear,” and “push me back into the vehicle using both of his hands causing me to fall backwards.”

No arrests occurred at the time of the fight, but some 12 hours later, Majors called saying that Jabbari was unresponsive in his bedroom closet, according to narratives by prosecutors and defense lawyers in court.

Emergency responders took Jabbari to the hospital and arrested Majors.

Following news of his arrest, the actor was dropped from various movie projects and brand deals, jeopardizing his rising film career.

Related: Loki Producer on Whether Jonathan Majors' Legal Troubles Will Impact Season 2

In several statements this spring, Chaudhry called the allegations a "witch hunt” to form a “false case” and alleged that Jabbari was “lying,” adding that there was “incontrovertible evidence” of the actor’s innocence.

In June – months after the alleged attack – Majors filed a counter-complaint, reportedly alleging that Jabbari had been "drunk and hysterical" at the time and had attacked him on the day that she claims he attacked her, causing him to bleed. Majors further alleged that Jabbari had attacked him multiple times in the past.

Majors claimed that as the March fight that originated in their car continued onto the street, Jabbari lunged at his face, causing a gash, and that she reached for his coat and phone.

"I was worried she would be hurt by traffic,” he explained per the incident report. “So I physically picked her up and put her in the car.”

Calling Majors’s assault trial “very unusual,” the judge contrasted the actor to indigent New Yorkers, who he suggested would not normally have been able to cross-file allegations against their accuser months after the fact, as Majors did, leading to Jabbari’s arrest in October.

Referring to Majors the judge asked: “If this was an indigent New Yorker would this arrest have happened?”

Prosecutors have declined to prosecute Jabbari and the case has been sealed, with Assistant District Attorney Kelli Galaway explaining to the judge Wednesday that there was “no prosecutorial merit” to Majors’s claims, a comment gaining a head shake from Good, who was sitting behind the actor in a reserved seat in the first row.

Related: Jonathan Majors Holds Hands with Meagan Good as He Arrives in Court for Trial Over Alleged Assault

But Good and the rest of the public were shut out of a later pretrial hearing regarding allegations that Gaffey deemed potentially “inflammatory.”

While the subject of that hearing is not public, The Rolling Stone reported allegations by former partners who came forward after the March incident with claims that Majors abused them over the past decade.

Heading into that hearing last week, Majors entered the courtroom without Good, carrying a coffee mug, notebook, yellow Post-It pad and what appeared to be a gold-leafed Bible.

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