Harvey Weinstein Gets Mistrial on Rape Charge After Threats to Jury Foreperson
Harvey Weinstein's rape charge ended in mistrial after the jury foreperson refused to return to the jury room Thursday after saying he faced threats from other jurors.
The 12-person jury in Weinstein's trial had found him guilty Wednesday of one count of a criminal sexual act against former Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley, but not guilty of the other count of a criminal sexual act against former model Kaja Sokola.
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After the mistrial was declared, prosecutors said Thursday that they plan to retry Weinstein on the rape charge, related to aspiring actress Jessica Mann, and that 'she is ready and willing and wants to retry this count.' A July 2 hearing has been set on that charge.
Weinstein faced one charge of rape in the third degree and two charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree, which is the higher felony charge and carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. The rape charge carries a sentence of up to four years.
On Wednesday, the jury had yet to reach a verdict on rape in the third degree, but jurors were sent home midday amid concerns about fighting and tensions in the jury room. They had been in the midst of their fifth day of deliberations.
The jury foreperson had sent a note Wednesday afternoon asking to speak to the judge and then told the attorneys and Judge Curtis Farber: 'I feel afraid inside there. I can't be inside there.'
He added that other jurors had been trying to get him to change his decision, and, when he had refused, had said 'Oh we will see you outside,' and that he was concerned for his own safety.
When the foreperson was asked Thursday if he would return to the jury room, he told the court, 'No, I'm sorry.'
However, Farber spoke with the others jurors after the mistrial was declared Thursday and said 'they were extremely disappointed' that deliberations had not continued and that 'They don't understand why the foreperson bowed out.'
Jury tensions had reached such a fever pitch Wednesday that Weinstein himself addressed the court, urging the judge for a mistrial. His request was denied at the time.
'This is not right for me, the person who is on trial here,' Weinstein said Wednesday. 'This is my life that's on the line, and you know what? It's not fair. It's simple. It's just not fair.'
The foreperson, who is charged with speaking on behalf of the jury, then returned to court after the jury had been dismissed Wednesday and implied that he did not want to go back into the deliberation room Thursday. He returned to court, but was being kept separately from the other jurors Thursday morning.
On Monday morning, the foreperson had also asked to speak to the judge and said that jurors were considering elements from Weinstein's past that weren't being used as evidence in the trial and weren't part of the charged crimes.
Another juror, who was juror No. 7 on this case and the youngest on the jury, had asked to address the court twice Friday, first saying he had heard jurors discussing another juror in the courtroom elevators, and then asking to be excused from the jury as he did not feel the process was 'fair,' while staring at the defense table.
'If you're a deliberating juror you have to be punched in the face in order for it to rise to the level of a real threat,' Weinstein's attorney, Arthur Aidala said Thursday, while urging the judge to call for mistrial before the juror entered. 'It's insane in the membrane, insane on the brain.'
All of this comes after Weinstein's 2020 rape and criminal sexual assault conviction was overturned in April 2024 after the court of appeals found the trial prejudiced Weinstein with improper rulings, including allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case.
In the 2020 trial, Weinstein received a mixed verdict with the jury finding Weinstein guilty of the crimes against Haley and Mann, but also acquitting Weinstein of first-degree rape and predatory sexual assault related to other women. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pursued the retrial of Weinstein shortly after his conviction was overturned.
In this trial, Mann had testified that she had first met Weinstein around 2013 at a party in Hollywood. After later attending his Oscars party, Mann said she was invited by Weinstein up to his hotel room, where he said he wanted to give Mann and her friend a script for Vampire Academy. There, Weinstein performed unwanted oral sex on her. After that incident, Mann said she decided to embark on a relationship with him.
'I just thought it would take the pain away,' Mann said on the stand.
The charge relates to an alleged incident with Weinstein in a Manhattan hotel in March 2013. At the time, Mann was visiting New York City with friends and said she had arranged to meet Weinstein for breakfast, along with her friends, but found that he had arrived early at her hotel and was in the process of booking a hotel room.
Despite her protests, Weinstein booked the room and she followed him upstairs. Once there, she claims he repeatedly held the door shut as she tried to leave and said she didn't want to do this, while he grabbed her arms and told her to undress.
She did so, and said Weinstein then went to the bathroom and injected himself with a substance which she later found was to treat erectile dysfunction, and then performed unwanted penetrative sex on her.
More to come.
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