Harvey Weinstein Convicted on Three Charges of Rape
Via Reuters
Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape at a Los Angeles trial in another #MeToo moment of reckoning, five years after he became a magnet for the movement.
The two-month trial saw how Weinstein used his power to lure women into private meetings before assaulting them. The 70-year-old Oscar winner is facing up to 24 years in prison when he is sentenced.
He is already serving 23 years in jail after he was convicted of rape and sexual assault at his first trial in New York two years ago.
After deliberating for nine days spanning more than two weeks, the jury of eight men and four women reached the verdict at the second criminal trial of the 70-year-old movie mogul.
Weinstein was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and another sexual misconduct count involving a woman known as Jane Doe 1. The jury was unable to reach a decision on several counts, notably charges involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The jury reported it was unable to reach verdicts in her allegations and the allegations of another woman. A mistrial was declared on those counts. He was also acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by another woman.
Defense lawyers said two of the women were entirely lying about their encounters with Weinstein, and that the other two had “100% consensual” sexual interactions that they later reframed.
“Regret is not the same thing as rape,” Weinstein attorney Alan Jackson said in his closing argument.
In a statement, Jane Doe #1 thanked the prosecution for “believing in me and fighting so hard for all the victims, including me, in the trial.”
“Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back,” she said. “The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did… I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
Weinstein is currently appealing against the New York conviction.
More than 80 women have come forward with accusations of sexual assault and misconduct against Weinstein spanning several decades.
