After a month-long trial and 9 days of deliberations, Los Angeles jurors on Monday discovered Harvey Weinstein responsible of the rape and sexual assault of simply one of many 4 accusers he was charged with abusing.
However the three responsible counts involving an Italian actor and mannequin recognized on the trial as Jane Doe 1 nonetheless struck a serious blow in opposition to the disgraced film mogul, and supplied one other #MeToo second of reckoning, 5 years after he grew to become a magnet for the motion.
Weinstein, 70, who is 2 years right into a 23-year sentence for a rape and sexual assault conviction in New York that’s below attraction, might stand up to 24 years in jail in California when he’s sentenced.
He was discovered responsible of rape, compelled oral copulation and one other sexual misconduct rely involving the girl who stated he appeared uninvited at her lodge room door throughout a Los Angeles movie competition in 2013.
“Harvey Weinstein eternally destroyed part of me that evening in 2013 and I’ll by no means get that again. The felony trial was brutal and Weinstein’s legal professionals put me via hell on the witness stand, however I knew I needed to see this via to the tip, and I did,” the girl stated in an announcement after the decision. “I hope Weinstein by no means sees the surface of a jail cell throughout his lifetime.”
Weinstein was acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a therapeutic massage therapist who handled him at a lodge in 2010.
The jury was unable to succeed in a call on counts involving two accusers, notably rape and sexual assault prices involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the spouse of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. A mistrial was declared on these counts.
Weinstein appeared down on the desk and appeared to place his face in his fingers when the preliminary responsible counts had been learn. He appeared ahead as the remainder of the decision was learn.
“Harvey is clearly upset within the verdict. He is aware of what occurred and what by no means did,” Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer stated in an e mail, saying there was a powerful foundation for an attraction on the convictions. “Harvey is grateful for the jury’s work on the opposite counts, and he’s decided to proceed his authorized challenges in finally proving his innocence.”
Los Angeles County District Legal professional George Gascón applauded the accusers for his or her bravery to testify within the case, saying in an announcement he was upset by the break up verdict however hoped it brings “some measure of justice to the victims.”
“Harvey Weinstein won’t ever have the ability to rape one other lady. He’ll spend the remainder of his life behind bars the place he belongs,” Siebel Newsom stated in an announcement. “All through the trial, Weinstein’s legal professionals used sexism, misogyny, and bullying ways to intimidate, demean, and mock us survivors. The trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.”
Siebel Newsom’s intense and dramatic testimony, through which she described being raped by Weinstein in a lodge room in 2005, introduced the trial its most dramatic moments. However solely eight of the 12 jurors agreed to seek out Weinstein responsible of these counts.
Jurors had been deadlocked 10-2 on a sexual battery rely involving Lauren Younger, the one accuser who testified at each Weinstein trials. She stated she was a mannequin aspiring to be an actor and screenwriter who was assembly with Weinstein a few script in 2013 when he trapped her in a lodge rest room, groped her and masturbated in entrance of her.
Missing any forensic proof or eyewitness accounts of years-old allegations, the case hinged closely on the tales and credibility of the 4 girls on the middle of the costs.
The ladies’s tales echoed the allegations of dozens of others who’ve emerged since Weinstein grew to become a #MeToo lightning rod beginning with tales within the New York Occasions in 2017. A film about that reporting, “She Stated,” was launched through the trial, and jurors had been repeatedly warned to not see it.
It was the protection that made #MeToo a problem through the trial, nonetheless, emphasizing that not one of the 4 girls went to the authorities till after the motion made Weinstein a goal.
Protection legal professionals stated two of the ladies — together with the one he can be discovered responsible of raping — had been completely mendacity about their encounters with Weinstein. They stated the opposite two had “100% consensual” sexual interactions that they later reframed.
Protection attorneys stated through the trial that if Siebel Newsom hadn’t reached her later prominence she can be “simply one other bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get forward in Hollywood.”
“Remorse is just not the identical factor as rape,” Weinstein legal professional Alan Jackson stated in his closing argument.
He urged jurors to look previous the the ladies’s emotional testimony and concentrate on the factual proof.
“‘Imagine us as a result of we’re mad, consider us as a result of we cried,’” Jackson stated jurors had been being requested to do. “Effectively, fury doesn’t make truth. And tears don’t make reality.”
All the ladies concerned within the prices glided by Jane Doe in courtroom. The Related Press doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually abused until they arrive ahead publicly or conform to be named via their attorneys, as the ladies named right here did.
Prosecutors referred to as 40 different witnesses in an try to offer context and corroboration to these tales. 4 had been different girls who weren’t a part of the costs however testified that Weinstein raped or sexually assaulted them. They had been dropped at the stand to determine a sample of sexual predation.
Weinstein beat 4 different felony prices earlier than the trial even ended when prosecutors stated a lady he was charged with raping twice and sexually assaulting twice wouldn’t seem to testify. They declined to offer a cause. Choose Lisa Lench dismissed these prices.
Weinstein’s newest conviction fingers a victory to victims of sexual misconduct of well-known males within the wake of some authorized setbacks, together with the dismissal of Invoice Cosby’s conviction final yr. The rape trial of “That ’70s Present” actor Danny Masterson, held concurrently and simply down the corridor from Weinstein’s, resulted in a mistrial. And actor Kevin Spacey was victorious at a sexual battery civil trial in New York final month.
Weinstein’s New York conviction survived an preliminary attraction, however the case is ready to be heard by the state’s highest courtroom subsequent yr. The California conviction, additionally more likely to be appealed, means he won’t stroll free even when the East Coast conviction is thrown out.
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