After four-plus days of deliberations, a seven-man, five-woman jury has found Harvey Weinstein guilty of sexual assault in New York City.
The Associated Press reports that the case was particularly difficult considering two of the of three women involved later had consensual sex with the movie maker and sent him “flirty” emails:
The verdict followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, lewd propositions and that’s-Hollywood excuses from Weinstein about how the casting couch works. …
The case against the once-feared producer was essentially built on three allegations: that he raped an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013, that he forcibly performed oral sex on another woman, production assistant Mimi Haleyi, at his apartment in 2006, and that he raped and forcibly performed oral sex on “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra in her apartment in the mid-1990s.
Three additional women who said they, too, were attacked by Weinstein also testified as part of an effort by prosecutors to show a pattern of brutish behavior on his part.
He was found guilty of two of the counts against him, which could result in a more than 20-year prison sentence. Jurors heard graphically sexual testimony during the trial and returned a guilty verdict on criminally sexually assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at Weinstein’s apartment in 2006 and for a 2013 third-degree rape of a woman in 2013.
The jury acquitted Weinstein on the most serious charge against him, predatory sexual assault, for which he could have spent life in prison.
KTLA reports that Weinstein now returns to LA to face more sexual assault charges, including from actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek, and Uma Thurman:
Weinstein now faces charges in Los Angeles. In that case, announced just as the New York trial was getting under way on Jan. 6, authorities allege Weinstein raped one woman and sexually assaulted another on back-to-back nights during Oscars week in 2013. One of those women testified as a supporting witness at the New York trial.
Ninety other women have also brought charges against the producer of Pulp Fiction and Good Will Hunting, among other well known Hollywood films.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member