Weinstein, as soon as one of the highly effective figures in Hollywood, had been accused of rape and assaults.
A jury in New York Metropolis has discovered Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced, former film mogul, responsible on a intercourse crimes cost in a retrial after a state appeals courtroom final 12 months overturned its preliminary 2020 conviction, which had been an inflection level for the #MeToo motion.
Jurors, in a majority-female jury, reached their verdict Wednesday on the fifth day of at occasions quarrelsome deliberations. He was acquitted of one other cost, and jurors had been as but unable to succeed in a verdict on a 3rd cost.
Weinstein, as soon as one of the highly effective figures in Hollywood, was accused by prosecutors of raping an aspiring actress and assaulting two different girls.
The 73-year-old had pleaded not responsible and continues to disclaim assaulting anybody or having non-consensual intercourse, regardless of a number of girls contending he did. Greater than 100 girls, together with well-known actresses, have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
In closing arguments on June 3, the prosecution advised the 12 jurors that the proof confirmed how Weinstein used his energy and affect to lure and abuse girls.
The defence put ahead that the accusers had lied on the stand out of a type of spite after consensual sexual encounters didn’t result in Hollywood stardom.
The retrial started on April 23. Weinstein has had a litany of well being issues and attended the retrial in a wheelchair.
Within the retrial, Weinstein was charged with raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013, assaulting former manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and assaulting Kaja Sokola in 2002 when she was a 16-year-old aspiring actress.
A jury had, in February 2020, discovered Weinstein responsible of raping Mann and sexually assaulting Haley. Sokola’s allegation was not a part of that case.
That top-profile conviction was important to bolstering the #MeToo motion, which inspired girls to come back ahead with allegations of sexual misconduct by highly effective males.
However the New York Court docket of Appeals, the state’s highest courtroom, threw out that conviction in April 2024. It mentioned the trial decide erred by letting girls testify that Weinstein had assaulted them, although their accusations weren’t the premise of the legal prices.
Weinstein, nonetheless, has remained behind bars due to his 2022 rape conviction in California, which resulted in a 16-year jail sentence. He’s nonetheless interesting that verdict.
Weinstein co-founded the Miramax studio, whose hit motion pictures included “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.”