Fallen mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted by a Manhattan jury on multiple accounts in his sexual assault trial. The verdict arrived on Monday following a week’s worth of deliberations. NBC News has the details on this developing story, including how Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape against actress Jessica Mann, along with a first-degree criminal sex act against production assistant Mimi Haley. That would be two guilty counts out of the five total charges brought against the former powerhouse producer, who pleaded not guilty throughout to any and all nonconsensual sexual acts.
On the remaining three charges, including two predatory sexual assault counts and a first-degree rape count against Mann, Weinstein was acquitted. This outcome follows over a month of testimony from four other accusers, including actress Annabella Sciorra, who delivered testimony about Weinstein’s pattern of predatory behavior, including her own accusation that he raped her in the 1990s. Hollywood Reporter reveals that Weinstein remains in custody following the verdict. The outlet also has details on how the jury may have deadlocked on the three charges for which he was acquitted:
On Friday afternoon, the jury appeared to suggest that they were deadlocked on the two most serious charges Weinstein is facing, predatory sexual assault, but possibly unanimous on the three lesser charges (criminal sex act, first-degree rape, third-degree rape).
In New York State, a person can be convicted of predatory sexual assault when a jury has determined that the person committed a first degree rape, criminal sexual act or aggravated sexual abuse against more than one other person.
This certainly isn’t the end of Weinstein’s legal sagas. When this trial began in early January in New York, new sex crime charges (including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by use of force) against him surfaced in Los Angeles. Those accusations were lodged by two women who accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting them in hotels in 2013. And that probably won’t be the end, given that the New York trial is a landmark one and a victory for the #MeToo movement, even before Weinstein’s sentencing at a later date.
Collectively speaking, Harvey Weinstein has been accused of sexual assault by over 80 women, many of whom found themselves on a massive hit list (to be targeted by his army of private investigators). In addition to those looming charges in LA, it’s unlikely that we won’t see more developments following the New York verdict.
UPDATE: CNN reports that Weinstein has been booked at New York’s Rikers Island jail. He’s been tagged with a state ID number, and his team’s “asked for the North Infirmary Unit (NIU) at Rikers Island.”
(Via NBC News, Hollywood Reporter & LA Times)
