Harvey Weinstein found guilty of sexual assault and third-degree rape in historic trial

The disgraced movie producer was ordered to go to prison immediately 
Stephanie Cockroft24 February 2020

Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has finally been brought to justice after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in a historic trial.

The once powerful movie mogul was found guilty of two charges following a landmark trial which involved harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers .

But the 67-year-old was acquitted on the most serious charge - predatory sexual assault - which carried a potential life sentence. He was also cleared on first degree rape.

Weinstein, who was ordered to go to jail immediately after the verdicts were given, now faces up to 25 years in prison. He will be sentenced on March 11.

Though Judge James Burke cautioned the jury not to see the case as a referendum on #MeToo, the case will be seen as a milestone for that movement, which has inspired women to go public with misconduct allegations against powerful men.

Weinstein used a zimmer frame as he attended court during the trial
REUTERS

Weinstein, who was at the helm of Oscar-winning films such as Good Will Hunting, Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love, stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read in court in Manhattan.

As the jury was taken back behind closed doors, he continued to sit at the defence table, with several court officers standing close by. He then began talking to his lawyers.

He was later handcuffed and led away from the court. The judge said he will request that Weinstein be held in the infirmary after his lawyers said he needs medical attention following an unsuccessful back surgery.

Weinstein's first conviction was for a criminal sex act in the first degree on production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006, which carries up to 25 years in prison.

The court was told how he helped her secure a job on Project Runway, before luring her to his New York apartment under the pretext of a business meeting.

He will be sentenced on March 11
AFP via Getty Images

He then forcibly performed oral sex on Ms Haleyi. She described Weinstein as a "Jekyll and Hyde" character.

The second count on which he was convicted involved the third-degree rape of a woman in 2013, which carries up to four years in prison.

The jury of seven men and five women had been deliberating the rape and sexual assault charges against Weinstein for five days.

While he did not testify, his lawyers contended that any sexual contact was consensual and that his accusers went to bed with him to advance their careers.

The defence seized on the fact that two of the women central to the case stayed in contact with Weinstein, and also had sex with him, after he was alleged to have attacked them.

Actor Annabella Sciorra testified during the trial
REUTERS

Ms Haleyi testified that she had sex with him two weeks later, while the rape accuser whose name was withheld said she had a sexual encounter with him more than three years afterwards.

During closing arguments, Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno charged that Weinstein had become "the target of a cause and a movement" and asked the jury to ignore "outside forces".

The case against the producer was essentially built on three allegation s: that he raped an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013, that he forcibly performed oral sex on Ms Haleyi and that he raped and forcibly performed oral sex on Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra in her apartment in the mid-1990s.

Three additional women who said they, too, were attacked by Weinstein also testified as part of an effort by prosecutors to show a pattern of brutish behaviour on his part.

Jurors signalled their struggles with the Sciorra charges four days into deliberations.

Weinstein has been convicted of a criminal act in the first degree on Mimi Haleyi
REUTERS

On Friday, after reviewing sections of her testimony and related evidence, they sent a note to the judge indicating they were deadlocked on the counts but had reached a unanimous verdict on the others . After some debate in the courtroom, the judge ordered jurors to keep deliberating.

Many of Weinstein's accusers described him as a person who would incredibly charming at first, making jokes and showing interest in using his immense power to help their careers.

But that was an act, they said, meant to gain their trust and get them to a place - often a hotel room or an apartment - where he could violate them.

Several women testified that Weinstein excused his behaviour as the price for getting ahead in Hollywood.

One said that when she laughed off his advances, he sneered, "You'll never make it in this business. This is how this industry works."

The jury heard lurid testimony that Weinstein injected himself with a needle to get an erection, that his genitals appeared disfigured abd that he sent Sciorra a box of chocolate penises. The court also heard that he once showed up uninvited at her hotel room door in his underwear with a bottle of baby oil in one hand and a video in the other.

During his trial, Weinstein often appeared feeble, entering the courthouse using a zimmer frame and sometimes leaning on his lawyer for support.

Critics had accused Weinstein of playing up medical problems to win sympathy but Weinstein said he had back injuries.

Weinstein now faces charges in Los Angeles. In that case, announced just as the New York trial was getting under way in January, authorities allege Weinstein raped one woman and sexually assaulted another during Oscars week in 2013.

One of those women testified as a supporting witness at the New York trial.

More than 80 women, including famous actresses, had accused him of sexual misconduct stretching back decades.

Weinstein was arrested in May 2018, seven months after The New York Times and The New Yorker exposed his alleged misconduct in stories that would win the Pulitzer Prize.

He had denied the allegations and said any sexual encounters were consensual.

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