NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein has been discovered responsible once more, convicted Wednesday of a prime intercourse crimes cost at his #MeToo retrial in New York Metropolis. The blended and partial verdict got here greater than 5 years after his first conviction, which an appeals courtroom overturned final yr.
The jury returned a verdict on two of three expenses in opposition to Weinstein, acquitting him of 1. Jurors indicated that that they had but to attain unanimity on the ultimate depend. That would imply extra deliberations on Thursday.
The decision capped a rare fifth day of deliberations.
The jury foreperson complained that he was being bullied by different jurors. Weinstein’s lawyer then requested for a mistrial, and Weinstein himself addressed the choose with out jurors within the courtroom, imploring him to finish the case and not using a verdict.
Minutes later, the jury of seven ladies and 5 males declared the ailing 73-year-old responsible of 1 depend of prison intercourse act, which carries a most sentence of 25 years in jail. Weinstein denies raping or sexually assaulting anybody. As soon as he is sentenced, he can attraction.
This is what that you must know concerning the verdict:
What was Weinstein convicted of?
Jurors convicted Weinstein of 1 depend of prison intercourse act, discovering that he forcibly carried out oral intercourse on a TV and film producer and manufacturing assistant, Miriam Haley, practically 20 years in the past.
Haley, who had a brief stint engaged on the Weinstein-produced “Challenge Runway,” testified that he assaulted her in July 2006 after inviting her to cease by his SoHo house earlier than a flight his firm booked her on the following day to Los Angeles to attend a film premiere.
Haley testified that Weinstein backed her right into a bed room, pushed her onto a mattress and compelled oral intercourse on her, undeterred by her kicks and pleas of, “No, no – it is not going to occur.”
Weinstein was convicted of the identical cost at his first trial.
Haley, who has additionally passed by the title Mimi Haleyi, instructed jurors that she was by no means excited about any sexual or romantic relationship with Weinstein however nonetheless wished his assist professionally.
She acknowledged she saved in contact and exchanged heat messages with him and accepted an invite to his resort room two weeks after the alleged assault, when she mentioned he pulled her into mattress for intercourse.
What was Weinstein acquitted of?
Weinstein acquitted of a cost of prison intercourse act regarding a beforehand uncharged allegation that he pressured oral intercourse on Kaja (KEYE’-ah) Sokola, a psychologist and former Polish mannequin and actor, at a Manhattan resort in 2006 simply earlier than her twentieth birthday.
Sokola, who wasn’t part of Weinstein’s first trial, testified that Weinstein assaulted her after luring her to his resort room by telling her had a script to point out her. As he pushed her onto a mattress, stripped off her boots, her stockings and her underwear, “my soul was faraway from me,” she mentioned.
Now 39, Sokola mentioned he held her down whereas ignoring her pleas of “please do not, please cease, I do not need this.” She mentioned she tried to push him away however was no match in opposition to the a lot bigger Weinstein.
Sokola additionally testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted her when she was 16 years outdated, however that allegation was past authorized closing dates for a possible prison cost.
Sokola mentioned she stayed in contact with Weinstein as a result of she had desires of an appearing profession.
She went to authorities in January 2020, just a few days into Weinstein’s first trial. Prosecutors halted their investigation after Weinstein was convicted, however revived it when the decision was thrown out final yr.
What cost hasn’t been determined but?
The jury hasn’t reached a verdict on a third-degree rape cost involving Jessica Mann’s allegation that Weinstein assaulted her in March 2013.
Mann, a cosmetologist and hairstylist, mentioned she met Weinstein at a celebration in late 2012 or early 2013, when she was 27 and making an attempt to launch an appearing profession.
She alleges Weinstein trapped her in a Manhattan resort room, demanded that she undress as he loomed over her, grabbed her arms and raped her after, she believes, he injected himself with an erection-promoting drug that she later discovered within the toilet trash.
Mann mentioned she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein, however that he was risky and violated her if she refused him.
She mentioned she saved in contact with Weinstein after the alleged rape, telling jurors she “compartmentalized the a part of Harvey that was hurting me,” and that flattery and friendliness “saved the peace.”
The Related Press usually doesn’t title sexual assault accusers with out their permission, which Haley, Mann and Sokola have given.
Why was there a brand new trial?
New York’s highest courtroom, the Court docket of Appeals, threw out Weinstein’s conviction in April 2024.
In a 4-3 choice, the courtroom mentioned the choose within the first trial, James Burke, denied Weinstein a good trial by letting three ladies testify about allegations that did not end in expenses and by deciding that prosecutors might confront Weinstein, if he testified, about tales of him behaving brutishly.
The courtroom labeled the allegations in opposition to Weinstein “appalling, shameful, repulsive conduct” however warned that “destroying a defendant’s character beneath the guise of prosecutorial want” didn’t justify some trial proof and testimony.
Burke’s time period expired on the finish of 2022, and he’s now not a choose.
Prosecutors weren’t allowed to retry Weinstein on expenses that he was acquitted of throughout his first trial, together with predatory sexual assault and one depend of first-degree rape.
What about Weinstein’s different prison case?
Weinstein is interesting his conviction in Los Angeles in the same case in 2022.
Jurors there discovered him responsible of three of seven expenses, together with rape, and he was sentenced to 16 years in jail. Weinstein’s attorneys argued he didn’t get a good trial.
They contend that the choose within the California case wrongly allowed jurors to find out about Weinstein’s 2020 New York conviction, and that the jury was unfairly prejudiced by testimony from ladies about alleged assaults Weinstein was not charged with.
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