Jury convicts Harvey Weinstein of high cost within the retrial of his landmark #MeToo intercourse crimes case

Former film mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday (June 11, 2025) of one of many high prices in his intercourse crimes retrial however acquitted of one other, and jurors had been as but unable to succeed in a verdict on a 3rd cost.

The cut up verdict meted out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors — but additionally to Weinstein — after the landmark case was thrown into limbo.

The partial verdict got here after a unprecedented day wherein the jury foreperson indicated he felt bullied and Weinstein himself urged the decide to halt the trial, declaring: “It’s simply not honest.”

“My life is on the road, and you understand what? It’s not honest,” the previous Hollywood heavy-hitter declared after making an uncommon request to handle the court docket. “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to say this trial is over.”

Weinstein’s preliminary conviction 5 years in the past appeared to cement the downfall of one in every of Hollywood’s strongest males in a pivotal second for the #MeToo motion. However that conviction was overturned final 12 months, and the case was despatched again for retrial in the identical Manhattan courthouse.

This time, a majority-female jury convicted the previous studio boss of forcibly subjecting Miriam Haley, a producer and manufacturing assistant, to a prison intercourse act in 2006.

However jurors acquitted Weinstein of one other prison intercourse act cost. It associated to Kaja Sokola, a former mannequin whose allegations of forcible oral intercourse date to 2006 however had been added to the case final 12 months.

And jurors had been to proceed deliberating Thursday (June 12, 2025) on a cost that he raped one other lady, hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann, in 2013. Underneath New York regulation, the third-degree rape cost carries a lesser penalty than the first-degree prison intercourse act offense.

Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anybody.

Jury deliberations had teetered Wednesday (June 11, 2025). The foreperson — who complained Monday (June 9, 2025) that different jurors had been pushing individuals to vary their minds and speaking about data past the costs — signalled to Decide Curtis Farber that he needed to speak.

“He stated phrases to the impact of ‘I can’t return in there with the opposite jurors,’” Decide Farber defined later. The dialogue was closed to the press and public, however Decide Farber later stated the foreperson had expressed that he didn’t wish to change his place and was being pressured, with one other juror saying one thing like “I’ll meet you exterior someday,” and yelling and screaming within the room.

Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala urged the decide to declare a mistrial, saying the foreperson had expressed considerations for his security. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, nevertheless, stated the foreperson hadn’t appeared afraid or apprehensive, simply “cussed.”

The episode was the newest signal of pressure among the many jurors. On Friday (June 6, 2025), one in every of them requested to be excused as a result of he felt one other member of the group was being handled unfairly. Weinstein’s attorneys requested unsuccessfully for a mistrial then, and once more after the foreperson expressed his considerations Monday (June 9, 2025).

The trial as soon as once more turned a authorized lens — and, to some extent the general public eye — on the person whose reputed historical past of brutishness towards ladies propelled the #MeToo period that started in 2017.

Weinstein’s corporations produced or distributed a string of finest image Oscar winners, from 1997’s The English Affected person to 2012’s The Artist, plus scores of different movies with Academy Award-winning performances, screenplays, music, or costume design. He personally stood on the Oscars stage as a producer of 1999 finest image winner Shakespeare in Love.

He additionally turned a outstanding Democratic donor.

Then an Italian mannequin informed police in 2015 that Weinstein had abruptly groped her in his New York workplace. No prices ever resulted from her allegations — a choice that haunted the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace two years later, when The New York Occasions and The New Yorker detailed a long time of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations towards Weinstein.

These disclosures made #MeToo a world rallying cry for sexual misconduct consciousness and accountability. Weinstein in the end was charged, convicted and sentenced to jail in New York and California.

His California conviction stands, although he’s interesting it. However New York’s highest court docket awarded Weinstein a brand new trial, faulting the previous trial decide for letting prosecutors buttress their case with testimony from Weinstein accusers past these whose accusations had led to prices.

These extra accusers didn’t testify at this spring’s retrial. But it surely was expanded with new prices associated to Ms Sokola, a Polish psychotherapist who stated Weinstein compelled oral intercourse on her when she was a 19-year-old mannequin.

And there have been contemporary bursts of rigidity in a case lengthy stuffed with graphic particulars and deeply private testimony. A shaken Ms Sokola was confronted with a passage from her non-public journal. Ms Mann pointed indignantly at Weinstein as she walked previous him in court docket. Ms Haley cursed at him from the witness stand.

Weinstein’s accusers — who all labored in present enterprise or needed to — stated he exploited his Tinseltown affect to dangle profession assist, get them alone after which entice and pressure them into sexual encounters.

In a complexity they spent days explaining, the ladies stayed in touch with Weinstein, noticed him once more, and at instances accepted or requested invites or favours, in accordance with testimony and paperwork. Ms Mann stated she had a consensual relationship with Weinstein that started earlier than and continued after he allegedly raped her.

The accusers stated they had been making an attempt to reckon with what had occurred, trying to suppress the assaults for his or her careers’ sake or making an attempt to maintain the peace with an influential, well-connected and irascible man.

Weinstein selected to not testify. His attorneys portrayed his accusers as Hollywood wannabes and hangers-on who willingly connected with him to court docket alternative, then recast the encounters as crimes years later to gather settlement funds and #MeToo approbation.

The Related Press usually doesn’t title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted, until they comply with be recognized. Ms Haley, Ms Mann and Ms Sokola did so.