Former film mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday (June 11, 2025) of one of the top prices in his sex crimes retrial however acquitted of one other, and jurors had been as but unable to succeed in a verdict on a 3rd charge.
The break up verdict meted out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors — but in addition to Weinstein — after the landmark case was thrown into limbo.
The partial verdict got here after a rare day in which the jury foreperson indicated he felt bullied and Weinstein himself urged the decide to halt the trial, declaring: “It’s just not fair.”
“My life is on the line, and you know what? It’s not fair,” the former Hollywood heavy-hitter declared after making an uncommon request to deal with the courtroom. “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to say this trial is over.”
Weinstein’s preliminary conviction 5 years in the past appeared to cement the downfall of one of Hollywood’s strongest males in a pivotal second for the #MeToo motion. But that conviction was overturned final 12 months, and the case was despatched again for retrial in the identical Manhattan courthouse.
This time, a majority-female jury convicted the former studio boss of forcibly subjecting Miriam Haley, a producer and manufacturing assistant, to a felony sex act in 2006.
But jurors acquitted Weinstein of one other felony sex act charge. It associated to Kaja Sokola, a former mannequin whose allegations of forcible oral sex date to 2006 however had been added to the case final 12 months.
And jurors had been to proceed deliberating Thursday (June 12, 2025) on a charge that he raped one other girl, hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann, in 2013. Under New York legislation, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the first-degree felony sex act offense.
Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anybody.
Jury deliberations had teetered Wednesday (June 11, 2025). The foreperson — who complained Monday (June 9, 2025) that different jurors had been pushing individuals to vary their minds and speaking about info past the prices — signalled to Judge Curtis Farber that he needed to speak.
“He said words to the effect of ‘I can’t go back in there with the other jurors,’” Judge Farber defined later. The dialogue was closed to the press and public, however Judge Farber later stated the foreperson had expressed that he didn’t wish to change his place and was being pressured, with one other juror saying one thing like “I’ll meet you outside one day,” and yelling and screaming in the room.
Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala urged the decide to declare a mistrial, saying the foreperson had expressed issues for his security. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, nevertheless, stated the foreperson hadn’t appeared afraid or apprehensive, simply “stubborn.”
The episode was the newest signal of pressure amongst the jurors. On Friday (June 6, 2025), one of them requested to be excused as a result of he felt one other member of the group was being handled unfairly. Weinstein’s attorneys requested unsuccessfully for a mistrial then, and once more after the foreperson expressed his issues Monday (June 9, 2025).
The trial as soon as once more turned a authorized lens — and, to some extent the public eye — on the man whose reputed historical past of brutishness towards girls propelled the #MeToo period that started in 2017.
Weinstein’s firms produced or distributed a string of finest image Oscar winners, from 1997’s The English Patient to 2012’s The Artist, plus scores of different movies with Academy Award-winning performances, screenplays, music, or costume design. He personally stood on the Oscars stage as a producer of 1999 finest image winner Shakespeare in Love.
He additionally grew to become a distinguished Democratic donor.
Then an Italian mannequin informed police in 2015 that Weinstein had abruptly groped her in his New York workplace. No prices ever resulted from her allegations — a call that haunted the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace two years later, when The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed many years of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations in opposition to Weinstein.
Those disclosures made #MeToo a worldwide rallying cry for sexual misconduct consciousness and accountability. Weinstein in the end was charged, convicted and sentenced to jail in New York and California.
His California conviction stands, although he’s interesting it. But New York’s highest courtroom awarded Weinstein a brand new trial, faulting the former trial decide for letting prosecutors buttress their case with testimony from Weinstein accusers past these whose accusations had led to prices.
Those further accusers didn’t testify at this spring’s retrial. But it was expanded with new prices associated to Ms Sokola, a Polish psychotherapist who stated Weinstein compelled oral sex on her when she was a 19-year-old mannequin.
And there have been contemporary bursts of pressure in a case lengthy full of graphic particulars and deeply private testimony. A shaken Ms Sokola was confronted with a passage from her personal journal. Ms Mann pointed indignantly at Weinstein as she walked previous him in courtroom. Ms Haley cursed at him from the witness stand.
Weinstein’s accusers — who all labored in present enterprise or needed to — stated he exploited his Tinseltown affect to dangle profession assist, get them alone after which entice and power them into sexual encounters.
In a complexity they spent days explaining, the girls stayed in contact with Weinstein, noticed him once more, and at occasions accepted or requested invites or favours, in accordance with testimony and paperwork. Ms Mann stated she had a consensual relationship with Weinstein that started earlier than and continued after he allegedly raped her.
The accusers stated they had been attempting to reckon with what had occurred, trying to suppress the assaults for his or her careers’ sake or attempting to maintain the peace with an influential, well-connected and irascible man.
Weinstein selected to not testify. His attorneys portrayed his accusers as Hollywood wannabes and hangers-on who willingly connected with him to courtroom alternative, then recast the encounters as crimes years later to gather settlement funds and #MeToo approbation.
The Associated Press usually doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted, until they comply with be recognized. Ms Haley, Ms Mann and Ms Sokola did so.
Published – June 12, 2025 01:00 am IST
