Judge declares mistrial on Harvey Weinstein rape charge

RTÉ News​

a day ago

The judge overseeing Harvey Weinstein's criminal case in Manhattan has declared a mistrial on a rape charge, one day after the former Hollywood movie mogul was convicted on a felony sex abuse charge.
Justice Curtis Farber ended the nearly seven-week trial after the jury foreperson refused to continue deliberations, following multiple days of reported dissension among jurors that at times was aired in the courtroom.
Prosecutors said they will try Weinstein a third time on the charge of third-degree rape, over his alleged mistreatment of the aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
Justice Farber said the case will proceed to trial, over the objections of Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala, and set a hearing for 2 July.
73-year-old Weinstein had pleaded not guilty and has denied assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex.
He faces up to 25 years in prison for his conviction on a charge of first-degree criminal sexual act, stemming from his alleged assault of former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006.
Weinstein was also acquitted of the same charge over his alleged assault in 2002 of Kaja Sokola, then a 16-year-old aspiring actress.
He is separately appealing a 2022 rape conviction in California, for which he was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Weinstein's downfall began in 2017 and helped spark the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men.
A different jury in the Manhattan court had found Weinstein guilty in 2020 of raping Ms Mann and sexually assaulting Ms Haley, but New York state's highest court overturned that conviction last year.
More than 100 women have accused him of misconduct.
The mistrial came one day after the jury foreperson told Justice Farber that other jurors were shouting at and threatening him for refusing to change his vote on the rape count. The foreperson did not indicate publicly how he planned to vote, and Justice Farber sent jurors home to cool off.
In closing arguments on 3 June, the prosecution told the 12 jurors that the evidence showed how Weinstein used his power and influence to trap and abuse women.
The defence countered that the accusers lied on the witness stand out of spite after their consensual sexual encounters with the Oscar-winning producer failed to result in Hollywood stardom.
Weinstein, who has had many health problems in recent years and attended the retrial in a wheelchair, co-founded the Miramax studio, whose hit movies included such Academy Award winners as "Shakespeare in Love" and "Pulp Fiction."
Weinstein's own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, five months after sexual misconduct accusations against him became widely publicised.