Weinstein found guilty of sexual assault, acquitted on another charge in #MeToo retrial
The split verdict meted out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors — but also to Weinstein — after the landmark case was thrown into limbo.
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 — after the landmark case was thrown into limbo.
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.
But jurors acquitted Weinstein of another criminal sex act charge. It related to Kaja Sokola, a former model whose allegations of forcible oral sex date to 2006 but were added to the case last year.
Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anyone.
Jury deliberations had teetered on Wednesday.
The foreperson, who complained Monday that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges, signaled to Judge Curtis Farber that he wanted to talk.
“He said words to the effect of ‘I can’t go back in there with the other jurors,’” Farber explained later.
The discussion was closed to the press and public, but Farber later said the foreperson had expressed that he didn’t want to change his position and was being pressured, with another juror saying something like “I’ll meet you outside one day,” and yelling and screaming in the room.
Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala urged the judge to declare a mistrial, saying the foreperson had expressed concerns for his safety. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, however, said the foreperson hadn’t seemed afraid or apprehensive, just “stubborn.”
The episode was the latest sign of strain among the jurors. On Friday, one of them asked to be excused because he felt another member of the group was being treated unfairly. Weinstein’s lawyers asked unsuccessfully for a mistrial then, and again after the foreperson expressed his concerns Monday.
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 Picture Oscar winners, from 1997’s “The English Patient” to 2012’s ”The Artist,” plus scores of other films with Academy Award-winning performances, screenplays, music, or costume design.
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.
