Squabbling jurors return split verdict in Harvey Weinstein trial, can't agree on rape charge

Yahoo

13 hours ago

Disgraced Hollywood perv Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday of a top charge in his Manhattan sex-crimes retrial — but squabbling jurors so far have failed to reach a verdict on a lesser count.
The shocking, if unfinished, outcome also saw Weinstein acquitted on the second top count – a twist that nonetheless likely won't keep the 73-year-old former movie mogul from spending the rest of his life behind bars.
It capped nearly a week of jury deliberations marked by infighting — including hours before the partial verdict when the foreman dramatically said he felt bullied and that another juror had threatened him.
This prompted Weinstein to push for Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber to halt the trial — claiming he felt like he was being put at risk.
'You are endangering me, your honor. I am not getting a fair trial,' he whined.
The 12 angry jurors, seven women and five men, appeared poised to be sent home, when they told Farber they had reached a verdict on two of three charges against Weinstein.
The wheelchair-bound ex-Miramax studio boss held his head down when jurors announced they had found him guilty of a first-degree criminal sex act for allegedly assaulting Miriam 'Mimi' Haley, a former TV production assistant.
But when Weinstein was found not guilty on the same charge for the assault of Polish former model Kaja Sokola, his head sprang up and he looked at his attorneys, as if he was surprised.
Jurors didn't reach a verdict on a count of third-degree rape tied to allegations made by ex-actress Jessica Mann, and were told they'd have to come back Thursday for more deliberations.
'Frankly, it wasn't intended to be easy… but please continue to deliberate with a goal to reach your verdict,' Farber said.
The Tinseltown creep's first trial in Manhattan ended with a conviction, too — in a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement against sexual violence.
But New York's highest court overturned that verdict last year in a shocking decision and ordered a new trial in the same courthouse.
Whatever the full verdict, Weinstein is likely to be locked up for life.
The first-degree criminal sex act conviction carries a sentence of up to 25 years behind bars. The rape charge he still awaits a decision on carries a 4-year maximum prison sentence.
Weinstein has also been sentenced to 16 years in California on a rape conviction there.
Haley and Mann, who both testified in Weinstein's first Manhattan trial in 2020, returned for dramatic second stints on the witness stand.
The trial also saw a new alleged victim, Sokola, who testified that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her at a Tribeca hotel in 2006, days shy of her 20th birthday.
'For myself, it closes a chapter that caused me a lot of pain,' Sokola said after the verdict was read Wednesday. '(Prosecutors) finally put the man who deserves to be in jail, in jail, for the rest of his life.'
Weinstein's first trial was marked by dramatic moments outside the courtroom, where dozens of women danced and chanted on the sidewalk in flash mob protests against sexual assault.
But this time around, the circus-like atmosphere seemed largely confined to the courtroom.
Weinstein's theatrical defense lawyer Arthur Aidala made nearly two dozen motions for mistrials throughout the seven-week trial and as jurors' deliberations descended into acrimony.
They reached a boiling point Wednesday after the foreman asked to speak to the judge about a situation that 'isn't very good.'
After a 20-minute closed-door conversation, Farber said the foreman outlined he felt threatened by another juror.
'Juror No. 1. made it very clear that he wasn't going to change his position… but he indicated that one other juror made comments to the effect that 'I would meet you outside one day' and there's yelling and screaming,' Farber said.
An apoplectic, beet-red Aidala called for a mistrial and melodramatically contended, 'There's a crime going on in there.'
'I should call 911 on his behalf,' Aidala offered.
Weinstein then asked to address the court, using the chance to call for an end to the fractious deliberations.
But the judge swatted down Weinstein, noting he has been in law for more than 30 years and jurors fighting is not different from anything else.
'I'm not going to allow any injustice to happen to you… I am very much guarding your right to have a fair trial,' Farber told him.
Soon afterward, jurors announced they'd reached the partial verdict.
The foreman later said jurors reached their decision on the two counts Friday, but still were hung up on the rape charge for Mann's accusations.
Mann, formerly an actress, sobbed while describing Weinstein raping her inside a Midtown hotel room in 2013, and discovering the sex fiend's erection-inducing drug needle in the trash afterward.
In her own dramatic testimony, Sokola had recalled for jurors how Weinstein name dropped A-list celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow after the shocking attack, before giving his teenage victim — who had screamed in horror — a demented word of purported advice.
'He said that I have to work on my stubbornness,' Sokola said. 'I have to listen to him if I want to proceed with that career.'
Haley, a former TV production assistant, told jurors that the Weinstein — who boasted the power to decide who appeared in films and who got jobs on sets — sexually assaulted her at his SoHo loft in 2006.
The Finland native stormed out of the courtroom in tears during a painstaking cross-examination from Weinstein's lawyer — snapping, 'Don't tell me I wasn't raped by that f–king a–hole!'
Haley, after the verdict, lambasted Weinstein's defense attorneys for inspiring chaos in the courtroom.
'The defense set a very disruptive and chaotic tone from the very start of this trial,' she said. 'I'm so grateful (the jury) saw through the nonsense and the antics.
'Testifying in the face of constant disruptions, victim shaming and deliberate attempts to distort the truth was exhausting and at times dehumanizing.'