[TECH AND FINANCIAL]
Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
A jury convicted Harvey Weinstein of one sexual assault charge but acquitted him of another, delivering a split verdict in his retrial on sexual assault accusations spanning his career as a Hollywood producer.
The jurors have not yet reached a decision on a third charge, of rape, against the former Miramax studio chief.
The verdict is the latest in a number of twists in Weinstein’s case since he became the flashpoint for the global #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago.
The retrial began in April after New York’s highest court last year overturned his 2020 sex crimes conviction, saying prosecutors should not have been allowed to introduce allegations by alleged victims who were not part of the case.
During the new trial, Weinstein’s lawyers sought to persuade the New York jury that the film producer’s reported sex abuse was consensual, maintaining “the casting couch is not a crime scene”, largely a repeat of his defence in the first prosecution.
The retrial descended into chaos as a divided jury deliberated, with jurors arguing and shouting at each other, according to an account given to the judge. The judge was told that one juror had said to another: “I’ll see you outside one day.”
The jury on Wednesday convicted Weinstein of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, but found him not guilty of a charge of forcing oral sex on actress Kaja Sokola the same year.
“I am so deeply grateful to the jury”, Haley said in a statement. “Today’s verdict gives me hope.”
Sokola said in a statement that she was “relieved that Harvey Weinstein will be held accountable for some of his crimes”, adding: “Harvey Weinstein will remain behind bars and that is a win.” Her lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, said: “Kaja may not have received the verdict she deserved, but her truth was heard.”
The jury is to resume deliberations on a rape charge alleging an attack by Weinstein on actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
“I would never lie about rape or use something so traumatic to hurt someone,” Mann said in a statement on Thursday. “Coming forward cost me everything. My privacy, my safety. I laid bare my trauma, my shame — everything I’d tried to bury just to keep living.”
Weinstein’s lawyers, and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, did not respond to requests for comment.
The 73-year-old, who attended the hearings in a wheelchair, did not testify. He has cancer and other health problems, a spokesman has previously said.
Separately, Weinstein was convicted of sex crimes in California in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His lawyers are appealing that conviction.
The 2020 conviction in New York was seen as a landmark moment in the #MeToo movement, which sought to hold powerful men accountable for sexual abuse and harassment. Allegations against Weinstein triggered a reckoning in which a series of powerful men around the world were held accountable for sexual misconduct.
[NEWS]
Source link
