Actress granted temporary restraining order against Avenatti (Update: Miniutti's version of events)

Monday the entertainment news site Blast reported that an actress named Mareli Miniutti had filed a request for a restraining order against Michael Avenatti. Today, an update at the site says the TRO was granted by a judge and a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 10.

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Miniutti is an actress in her 20s, originally from Estonia, and most recently scored a cameo in “Ocean’s Eight.”

As we reported, Avenatti was arrested last week after a woman called police. He was arrested at his apartment in L.A. but the circumstances behind the allegations were unclear.

Here is Miniutti’s IMDB page which shows she has had cameo roles in a few films. Meanwhile, Avenatti continued to maintain that he would be completely exonerated on Twitter:

He also said there was evidence posted on Instagram that would clear him:

Last night the site Hill Reporter, which was founded by the Krassenstein brothers, said it received videos posted on Miniutti’s Instagram account that went up after Avenatti was arrested, shortly before her account was made private:

On Monday night we received anonymous photos and footage that shows Mareli Miniutti’s activity on her personal Instagram page just hours after accusing Avenatti of domestic abuse. Miniutti has since made her Instagram page private but not before the following posts and video proof was captured. Our source notes that the posts were placed on Instagram just hours after Avenatti was taken into custody.

While everyone deserves the right to show distress in their own way, Miniutti seems downright happy just hours after Avenatti was taken into custody. This is a screenshot of one video she posted.

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You can click the link to see screengrabs from the video. Later last night, Avenatti also referred to other, unspecified video which would clear him:

In a second story, Hill Reporter says there is security camera video which undercuts the claims made in the original TMZ report:

According to our source, the video footage clearly shows that on Tuesday night Avenatti and Mareli Miniutti were indeed together. However, no physical contact was witnessed between the pair. Throughout Tuesday and well into Wednesday night the apartment complex continued to capture footage…

Our source with knowledge of the investigation says the four security cameras located at strategic parts of the apartment show that none of the story TMZ reported is true. The source says Avenatti never ran “angrily” into the building as TMZ reports and he never shouted “This is bulls***, this is f***in bullsh***” while trying to push past security who denied him access.

Hill Reporter seems to be getting a lot of inside-Avenatti information, but assuming this is accurate it seems like a fairly solid rebuttal of the initial TMZ story. What doesn’t make sense at this moment is why the LAPD would have arrested Avenatti if there was zero evidence he had harmed anyone. We still don’t know how the initial report of domestic violence was made but wouldn’t a report normally need to be accompanied by some evidence? Avenatti has also suggested several times that Jacob Wohl was somehow behind this entire story.

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So I guess we’re still waiting to see how Wohl had a connection to an up-and-coming Estonian actress. Anything is possible but at this point, it’s hard to see why an actress looking to work in Hollywood would put an end to her fledgling career with a false allegation.

Update: From TMZ, here’s the allegation being made by Miniutti.

The woman, Mareli Miniutti, says she and Avenatti were in the master bedroom of their apartment arguing about money on November 13, when he called her an “ungrateful f**king bitch” … according to docs. She says he followed her into a guest bedroom while verbally berating her and hitting her “forcefully” in the face with pillows. She claims he said, “Do not disrespect me. You don’t get to sleep in my house tonight.”

In the docs, Mareli says Avenatti grabbed her by her wrist and pulled her off of the bed in the guest bedroom — and when she escaped his grasp, she started texting a friend. She claims he grabbed the phone out of her hand … and started screaming for help out of a window.

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Avenatti then allegedly dragged her into a hallway but she wasn’t fully dressed. The story says she rang a neighbor’s doorbell at which point Avenatti dragged her back inside the apartment. She eventually left and claims Avenatti begged her not to involve building security. She also claims this isn’t the first time he’s been physically violent, citing another incident in February.

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