Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday of one of the top charges in his sex crimes retrial but acquitted of another, and jurors were as yet unable to reach a verdict on a third charge.
The split verdict meted out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors — but also to Weinstein — in the landmark case.
The partial verdict came after an extraordinary day in which the jury foreperson indicated he felt bullied and Weinstein himself urged the judge 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 unusual request to address the court. “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to say this trial is over.”
Weinstein’s initial conviction five years ago seemed to cement the downfall of one of Hollywood’s most powerful men in a pivotal moment for the #MeToo movement. But that conviction was overturned last year, and the case was sent back for retrial in the same Manhattan courthouse.
This time, a majority-female jury convicted the former studio boss of forcibly subjecting Miriam Haley, a producer and production assistant, to a criminal sex act in 2006. Jurors acquitted Weinstein of another criminal sex act charge, this one related to former model Kaja Sokola’s allegations of forcible oral sex in 2006.
Haley, who had qualms about testifying again, said outside court Wednesday it had been “exhausting and at times dehumanizing.”
“But today’s verdict gives me hope,” she added.
Jurors were to continue deliberating Thursday on a rape charge involving hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann. Under New York law, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the first-degree criminal sex act offense.
But the judge told the foreperson he won’t have to go in the jury room if he doesn’t want to, adding more uncertainty to the proceedings.
Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anyone.
Tension in the jury room
Jury-room strains started leaking into public view Friday, when a juror asked to be excused because he felt another was being treated unfairly. Then Monday, the foreperson complained that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges.
The man raised similar concerns again Wednesday. In a closed-door discussion with prosecutors, defense lawyers and the judge, the foreperson said another juror was yelling at him for sticking to his opinion and at one point vowed, “You going to see me outside.”
“I feel afraid inside there,” the foreperson told the judge and attorneys, according to a transcript.
Weinstein’s lawyers asked unsuccessfully for a mistrial each time the concerned jurors came forward.
Weinstein and #MeToo
The trial once again turned a legal lens — and, to some extent the public eye — on the man whose reputed history of brutishness toward women propelled the #MeToo era that began in 2017.
Weinstein’s companies produced or distributed a string of best Oscar winners for decades. He personally stood on the Oscars stage as a producer of 1999 best picture winner “Shakespeare in Love.” He also became a prominent Democratic donor.
When an Italian model told police in 2015 that Weinstein had abruptly groped her in his New York office, no charges resulted.
Then, two years later, The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed decades of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against Weinstein.
Those disclosures made #MeToo a global rallying cry for sexual misconduct awareness and accountability.
Weinstein ultimately was convicted of sex crimes and sentenced to prison in New York and California.
His California appeal is ongoing. But New York’s highest court awarded Weinstein a new trial, saying the former trial judge had allowed prejudicial testimony.
The accusations and Weinstein’s defense
The retrial was expanded with new charges related to Sokola, a Polish psychotherapist who said Weinstein forced oral sex on her when she was a 19-year-old model.
Sokola called Wednesday’s partial verdict “a big win for everyone” and the “closing of a chapter that caused me a lot of pain throughout my life.”
In one of the tensest moments of testimony, she was confronted with a passage from her private journal. At other flashpoints, Mann pointed indignantly at Weinstein as she walked past him in court, and Haley cursed at him from the witness stand.
Weinstein’s accusers said he exploited his Tinseltown influence to dangle career help, get them alone and then trap and force them into sexual encounters.
In a complexity they spent days explaining, the women stayed in contact with Weinstein, saw him again, and at times accepted or requested invitations or favors, according to testimony and documents. Mann said she had a consensual relationship with Weinstein that began before and continued after he allegedly raped her.
The accusers said they were trying to reckon with what had happened, attempting to suppress the assaults for their careers’ sake or trying to keep the peace with an influential, well-connected and irascible man.
Weinstein chose not to testify. His attorneys portrayed his accusers as Hollywood wannabes and hangers-on who willingly hooked up with him to court opportunity, then recast the encounters as crimes years later to collect settlement funds and #MeToo approbation.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be identified. Haley, Mann and Sokola did so.
