Producer was retried for offences against two women
Disgraced Hollywood titan Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of one sexual assault at his retrial Wednesday and not guilty of another, with jurors still considering a rape charge after hearing graphic testimony from his alleged victims, as reported by AFP.
Weinstein was retried for offences against two women, Jessica Mann whom he is alleged to have raped, and Miriam Haley whom he was found to have sexually assaulted, alongside new charges of assaulting ex-model Kaja Sokola.
He was found not guilty of those new charges at the tense proceeding in a Manhattan court on Wednesday.
Delivering the verdict of the seven women and five men of the jury on the Haley count, the foreman said: “Guilty.”
He shook his head when he was asked for a verdict on the rape of Mann, and said “not guilty” on the Sokola count.
Weinstein looked on impassively, seated in a wheelchair and wearing a dark suit as he has done throughout the six weeks of hearings.
But later, the 73-year-old appeared to mutter “Not true” as he was wheeled out of court.
Post-verdict
Following the verdict, Haley told reporters that the defence’s “victim shaming and deliberate attempts to distort the truth was exhausting and at times dehumanising.”
“But today’s verdict gives me hope, hope that there is new awareness around sexual violence and that the myth of the ‘perfect victim’ is fading.”
The verdicts came after a dramatic morning in which tensions in the jury deliberation room spilled into the open.
The foreman had told the judge Curtis Farber he could not continue after facing threats.
“One other juror made comments to the effect ‘I’ll meet you outside one day’,” the judge said, quoting the foreman, adding there was yelling between jurors.
After Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala heatedly demanded a mistrial over the jury rupture, Weinstein himself addressed the court, deploying a commanding voice reminiscent of the heyday of his Hollywood power.
“We’ve heard threats, violence, intimidation – this is not right for me… the person who is on trial here,” he said.
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