A Manhattan jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty on a sex crimes charge yesterday, though the jury has not yet reached a verdict on all counts the former movie mogul faces in deliberations that have been marred by infighting and threats.
Weinstein, once one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, is facing a retrial after a state appeals court last year overturned his 2020 conviction. He was accused by prosecutors in the case of raping an aspiring actress and assaulting two other women. Weinstein, 73, pleaded not guilty and has denied assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex.
The jury found Weinstein guilty on one of the three counts he faced, which stemmed from his alleged assault of former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006. The jury found Weinstein not guilty of a charge stemming from his alleged assault of Kaja Sokola in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old aspiring actress.
The jury has not yet reached a verdict on a third count, which charges him with raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. They will resume deliberations on that count today.
Regardless of their eventual verdict on the rape charge, Weinstein faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced. He has separately been sentenced to 16 years in prison following a rape conviction in California.
Jurors in the New York case reached their partial verdict on the fifth day of sometimes fractious deliberations. Before the jury announced their verdict yesterday, Justice Curtis Farber met privately one person on the 12-member jury referred to as Juror One. The judge then stated in open court that there had been “fighting” in the jury room.
“Juror One has made it very clear that he is not going to change his position,” Farber said, adding that Juror One did not tell him what his position was. “He indicated that at least one other juror made comments to the juror that ‘I’ll meet you outside one day,’ and there’s yelling and screaming.”
Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala asked for a mistrial. As Farber was preparing to dismiss jurors for the day to give them a chance to “cool off,” the jury sent a note indicating it had reached a verdict on some counts.
The retrial began on April 23. Weinstein has had a litany of health problems and attended the retrial in a wheelchair.
&uuid=(email))