3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Juror at Weinstein sex crimes retrial asks to speak to judge about troubling ‘situation'
Jury deliberations in Harvey Weinstein's sex crimes retrial teetered Wednesday as the foreperson again requested to speak to the judge about 'a situation' he found troubling.
The man – who complained Monday that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges – was being questioned in private, at his request.
While the jury was in court to hear the answer to an earlier request to re-hear the text of a rape law, the foreperson signaled to Curtis Farber, the judge, that he wanted to talk.
'He said words to the effect of 'I can't go back in there with the other jurors,'' Farber explained later. The foreperson was sent to wait in a separate room, where he penned a note saying, 'I need to talk to you about a situation.'
When briefly brought into court, the foreperson said he wanted to speak in private. He, the judge, prosecutors and Weinstein's lawyers then went behind closed doors.
The seven female and five male jurors started their fifth day of deliberations Wednesday by re-hearing accuser Jessica Mann's testimony that he raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
Mann's accusation was an apparent focus of Tuesday's deliberations, and the jury ended the day by asking to be re-read her testimony about what happened between her and Weinstein at the hotel. The group also indicated it wanted to continue privately reviewing her emails with Weinstein and some 2017 medical records concerning her reaction to news accounts of other women's allegations against him.
Some jurors appeared to take fresh notes Wednesday, while others sat impassively as court stenographers read aloud the requested parts of Mann's days-long testimony. The jury had already reheard some of the passages last week.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty to raping Mann and to forcing oral sex on two other women, Mimi Haley and Kaja Sokola. The Oscar-winning producer and former Hollywood powerbroker maintains that he never sexually assaulted or raped anyone, and his lawyers portrayed his accusers as opportunists who accepted his advances because they wanted a leg up in the entertainment world.
While all three women stayed in contact with Weinstein despite what they say were assaults, Mann had a particularly complex history with him. She testified that they had a consensual relationship that exploded into rape, yet continued afterward.
Weinstein was one of the movie industry's most powerful figures until a series of sexual misconduct allegations against him became public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo movement and eventually leading to criminal charges.
He originally was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann and forcing oral sex on Haley. Sokola's allegation was added last year, after New York state's highest court overturned the 2020 conviction and sent the case back for retrial. Meanwhile, Weinstein is appealing a 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles.
After a couple of days of apparent interpersonal friction, the retrial jury worked through Tuesday with no further complaints.
