Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty on One Charge in New York Rape Retrial
Originally appeared on E! Online
A portion of Harvey Weinstein's fate has been decided.
A jury found the former Hollywood producer guilty of one of the three sex crimes charges in his New York retrial on June 11. Weinstein was convicted of the charge of a Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree, stemming from his 2006 alleged assault of former production assistant Miriam Haley.
He was found not guilty of a charge of a Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree over his alleged assault of Kaja Sokola in 2006. The jury has yet to reach a verdict on the third count, relating to the alleged 2013 rape of aspiring actress Jessica Mann. (Deliberations are set to continue June 12.)
Weinstein, 73, was originally found guilty of third-degree rape and one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree during his trial in 2020, resulting in a 23-year sentence behind bars, per NBC News.
However, his conviction was overturned in April 2024, with New York's highest court determining that improper testimony had been allowed at the trial.
'We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes,' the court said, "because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose."
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Weinstein—who has pleaded not guilty—was accused of performing oral sex on former Project Runway production assistant Haley in 2006 without her consent and raping aspiring actress Mann in 2013.
In his retrial, he also faced a new allegation from Sokola, who said she met Weinstein at a club in 2002 when she was 16 and working as a fashion model, according to The New York Times. She alleged that he forcibly performed oral sex on her at a hotel in Manhattan four years later, leading to one more count of a first-degree criminal sexual act, per NBC News.
'They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant's world, the entertainment industry,' prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors June 3, per The Associated Press. "He was going to have their bodies and touch their bodies whether they wanted him to or not.'
But, according to the outlet, Weinstein's lawyer argued, 'It's transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him."
Since the start of the #MeToo movement, over 80 women have accused the Oscar winner of sexual misconduct, though he maintains his interactions were consensual, per NBC.
Weinstein—who was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer last year—is also serving 16 years in prison following a separate 2022 conviction of one count of forcible rape and two counts of sexual assault in his Los Angeles case.
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)
For free, confidential help, call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 or visit rainn.org.
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