Divided verdict achieved in the trial of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual crimes crimes

Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of a position to participate in criminal sex, but acquitted in a second position in his new trial of sexual crimes in New York.

Manhattan’s jury could not reach a verdict on the third violation position. The judge dismissed the jury members for the day, but told them to continue deliberating in that position on Thursday.

The divided verdict occurs after an apparent discord in the jury room during the deliberations.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Foreperson jury sent a note that told Judge Curtis Farber that “he cannot enter with those people.” That followed a closed -door conversation during which the Persisson complained to the judge that the jury members “attacked” and fight, adding: “I don’t like it,” according to a transcription.

Without the jury present, Weinstein addressed the judge on Wednesday and complained that the jury’s behavior is depriving him of a fair trial.

“We have heard threats, we have heard fights, we have heard intimidation,” said Weinstein. “This is not suitable for me, the person in trial here.”

Farber had proposed a cooling period, then the jury returned to say that they had a verdict on both positions.

By saying goodbye to the jury on Wednesday, Farber reminded the jurors to be respectful to each other.

Weinstein was being withdrawn by sexually assaulting two women, Mimi Haley and Jessica Mann, after a previous conviction was revoked in appeal. He is also accused of sexually assaulting a third woman, Kaja Sokola, who was not part of the first trial.

The jury condemned Weinstein for participating in an act of criminal sex with Haley, but acquitted him in an act of criminal sex with Sokola.

The jury members will resume deliberations about the violations that involves Mann on Thursday.

Weinstein, 73, declared himself innocent and said that his sexual encounters were consensual. He did not testify during the trial.

The three women present themselves publicly and testified during the trial.

After the divided verdict, Haley thanked the jurors, who said “saw through the nonsense and mischief” of defense.

“Type the constant interruptions, the shame of the victims and the deliberate attempts to distort the truth were exhausting and sometimes dehumanizing,” he said. “But today’s verdict gives me hope, I hope there is a new awareness about sexual violence and that the myth of the perfect victim is fading.”

“I hope this result allows others to speak and seek justice,” he added.

Sokola told the journalists that she was happy with the verdict and proud of the other women they testified.

“It was an extremely difficult trip for all of us to relive our traumas and check it in the open court,” said Sokola. “It’s a great victory for everyone. Harvey Weinstein will be in jail.”

“For me, it is the closure of a chapter that caused me a lot of pain throughout my life,” he added.

His lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, said the verdict “is a step towards justice, even if it is not complete.”

The accusations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein published in 2017 galvanized the #Metoo Movement. After the verdict, Haley’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, told reporters on Wednesday, “for those of you in the press that you have predicted that the #MeToo movement could be dead, that the obituary was obviously premature.”

Prosecutors said Weinstein “took advantage of three women” how “had power without restrictions for more than 30 years” in Hollywood, while the defense said that the producer did not force women and said they were using it for their connections.

“Harvey Weinstein had enormous control over those who worked on television and cinema. He decided who was inside and who was out,” said the prosecutor, Shannon Lucey, to the jury of seven women and five men at the beginning of the trial. “He held the Golden Ticket. The opportunity to do it or not.”

Lucey said “no” was “not a word that the defendant was used to the audience.”

Weinstein’s defense lawyer, Arthur Aidala, agreed with the prosecutors that Weinstein was a powerful man in television and film industries, but told the jury that Weinstein did not force the women he accused of assaulting. Instead, Aidala said Weinstein dedicated himself to “mutually beneficial relations” that the lawyer said he has been happening in Hollywood for a hundred years.

“They are playing with him consensually,” said Aidala. “The casting couch was not a crime scene.”

When detailing the alleged sexual aggressions, Lucey said that when Haley went to the Weinstein Crosby Street apartment in July 2006 to discuss a production role in “Project Runway”, he “retained” her and subjected her to forced sexual behavior.

Sokola was 16 when he met Weinstein in 2002 at a restaurant in West Village shortly after signing a modeling contract to come to New York from Poland. Several years later, in 2006, Weinstein broadcast Sokola as an extra in “The Nanny Diaries.” After a lunch at a Manhattan hotel that year, Weinstein supposedly “pressed on her shoulders with enough force to take her to bed” and forced oral sex to the 19 -year -old as she said: “Please do not do this,” said Lucey.

Lucey also said that Weinstein supposedly forced Sokola to play her genitals in an apartment in Manhattan when she was 16 years old. Weinstein is not accused in that supposed 2002 incident in the accusation, since it is outside the statute of limitations. But the judge allowed Sokola to testify in this regard during the trial, along with a second alleged incident that involved Weinstein who, according to her, occurred in 2004. Sokola previously filed a lawsuit in New York under the law of victims of children about the alleged incident of 2002, which prosecutors said it has been resolved since then.

In 2013, Weinstein supposedly submitted Mann to sex without his consent in a hotel, according to Lucey. Mann testified that Weinstein raped her after discovering that she had a serious boyfriend who was an actor. Lucey said that Mann had also been involved in sexual encounters with Weinstein who were not forced for fear of his power in the industry.

The new trial occurs after the New York Court of Appeals revoked Weinstein’s initial sentence last year, finding the judge of first instance “erroneously admitted the testimony of previous sexual acts not loaded against people who are not the demanding of the underlying crimes.”

Weinstein also appealed his sentence in December 2022 for sexual crimes in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison there.