Harvey Weinstein gets mistrial on rape charge after jury drama spirals out of control
Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes retrial ended with a hung jury on one count of rape in the third degree Thursday — after jurors were able to convict the former Miramax pervert on a more serious sex act.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Curtis Farber ruled that the deadlock jury was not able to reach a unanimous verdict on whether Weinstein, 72, former actress Jessica Mann inside a Midtown hotel room in 2013.
'Sometimes jury deliberations become heated. I understand this particular deliberation was more needed than some others,' Farber told the 12-person jury, before a ruled a mistrial to the rape charge.
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The judge indicated that a mistrial was at play before he called the foreperson into the courtroom Thursday morning and asked him if he was willing to join fellow panelists after deliberations were ceased Wednesday afternoon.'
A mistrial was declared on the third charge after the jury foreman said she was threatened.
AP
'No, I'm sorry,' the juror said.
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The dysfunction unfolded last week when one juror expressed that 'playground' bullying was happening during deliberations — which leaked into the next days of deliberating, with the foreperson, Juror No. 1, claiming that a fellow panelist told him, 'I would meet you outside one day.'
The judge called the foreperson into the room Thursday morning and asked him if he was willing to continue deliberating after deliberations were ceased Wednesday afternoon.
'No, I'm sorry,' the juror said.
Weinstein, seated in a black wheelchair, clapped three times when the juror refused to head back into deliberations.
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The Miramax perv was convicted of criminal sex act in the first degree Wednesday for assaulting Miriam 'Mimi' Haley, a former TV production assistant, at his SoHo loft in 2006.
But jurors acquitted Weinstein of the same charge pertaining to the alleged rape of former Polish model Kaja Sokola, who testified that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her at a Tribeca hotel in 2006, days shy of her 20th birthday.
Weinstein was charged with rape in the third degree for allegedly sexually assaulting Mann, who sobbed on the stand while describing the rape, and seeing Weinstein's erection-inducing drug needle in the trash afterward
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