Weinstein case judge declares mistrial on remaining rape charge amid jury issues
Weinstein, 73, denies all the charges and had complained to the judge before Wednesday's partial verdict that it was unfair to continue amid jury tensions.
He had a blank, drained expression as court officers escorted him out on Thursday in the wheelchair he uses due to various health problems.
He has been behind bars since his initial conviction in 2020 and he was later sentenced to prison in a separate California case, which he's appealing.
He's due back in court on July 2 for discussion of retrial and sentencing dates.
His first-degree criminal sex act conviction carries the potential for up to 25 years in prison, while the unresolved third-degree rape charge is punishable by up to four years — less than he already has served.
In Wednesday's partial verdict, Weinstein was convicted of one charge but acquitted of another. Both of those charges concerned accusations of forcing oral sex on women in 2006. Those verdicts still stand.
While the jury of seven women and five men was unanimous on those decisions, it got stuck on the rape charge involving another woman, Jessica Mann, who also said she had a consensual sexual relationship with Weinstein.
Jury-room strains started leaking into public view on Friday, when a juror asked to be excused because he felt another was being treated unfairly.
Then on Monday, the foreperson complained that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges.
The man raised concerns again on Wednesday, telling the judge he felt afraid in the jury room because another juror was yelling at him for sticking to his opinion and at one point suggested the foreperson would 'see me outside'.
When Judge Curtis Farber asked the foreperson whether he was willing to return to deliberations, the man said no. And with that, Mr Farber declared a mistrial on the rape count.
Mr Farber said he later spoke to the other 11 jurors, and 'they were extremely disappointed' by the outcome.
'They all thought they were involved in a normal discourse, and they don't understand why the foreperson bowed out,' Mr Farber told Weinstein and the lawyers in court.
Ms Mann, a hairstylist and actor, gave evidence for days — as she did in 2020 — about the rape she said she endured in a Manhattan hotel room and about why she continued to see and have consensual encounters with Weinstein afterward.
She is ready to return to the witness stand a third time, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said.
In a statement on Wednesday, Ms Mann said that coming forward 'cost me everything', including privacy.
'Still, I stood up and told the truth. Again and again,' she said.
Weinstein's initial conviction five years ago seemed to cement the downfall of one of Hollywood's most powerful men in a pivotal moment for the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct.
But that conviction was overturned last year, and the case was sent back for retrial in the same Manhattan courthouse.
Weinstein's accusers said he exploited his Tinseltown influence to dangle career help, get them alone and then trap and force them into sexual encounters.
His defence portrayed his accusers as Hollywood wannabes and hangers-on who willingly hooked up with him to court opportunity, then later said they were victimised to collect settlement funds and #MeToo approbation.
Miriam Haley, the producer and production assistant whom Weinstein was convicted — twice, now — of sexually assaulting, said outside court on Wednesday that the new verdict 'gives me hope'.
Accuser Kaja Sokola also called it 'a big win for everyone,' even though Weinstein was acquitted of forcibly performing oral sex on her when she was a 19-year-old fashion model.
Her allegation was added to the case after the retrial was ordered.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they agree to be identified. Ms Haley, Ms Mann and Ms Sokola did so.
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The Sun
14 hours ago
- The Sun
My blood ran cold as Sex and the City's Mr Big groped me during horror interview… what followed was even more chilling
SMILING for the camera alongside one of my TV idols, I felt a sudden hand on my chest and time stood still. I had just been groped by Sex And The City 's 'Mr Big' Chris Noth - whose behaviour up to that point had been a world away from his suave TV persona - but it was what happened next that truly turned my blood cold. 6 6 Last week, many fans were surprised when Sarah Jessica Parker wrote a lengthy farewell message to the franchise following the cancellation of spin-off series And Just Like That, but failed to mention her former on-screen soulmate. However, I was more bemused by subsequent newspaper coverage suggesting the actor, 70 - who has denied accusations of sexual abuse by five women - could be the "forgotten victim" of the #MeToo movement. I know what kind of man Chris Noth is - after one shocking encounter which left me feeling dazed and violated. I met Noth during the peak of Sex And The City, when the episodes were on Channel 4 on Friday nights, and women got together with friends to watch over a Cosmopolitan or two every week. Like most other females in their twenties, I was a huge fan, so extremely excited to be sent to interview Mr Big for the celebrity magazine I was working for at the time. It was a press junket in a posh London hotel, one journalist after another getting a precious 20 minutes with a star to maximise their publicity time. I was expecting Noth to be like his character, impossibly suave and charismatic. Instead the man I was greeted by acted like a teenage doofus, with a very immature sense of humour. He was less Big, more Beavis and Butthead. I was disappointed of course, but this was far from the first celebrity I'd encountered who was nothing like their public persona, so fine. We wrapped up the interview just as the next journalist was being led in and by coincidence it was a good friend of mine. This was the days before everyone had a smartphone in their pocket, but she'd brought along a polaroid camera, and offered to take a quick picture of me and Noth before I left. He hadn't been what I'd hoped, but he was still Mr Big, so of course I wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. He stood behind me for the photo, and as my friend prepared to take it, he giggled like a 14-year-old and cupped his hands in front of my chest, in a way that would make it look like he was holding my boobs in the picture. Shamed Chris Noth makes first Hollywood appearance after being axed from Sex And The City over sex assault claims I felt uncomfortable, but I was very young, and he wasn't actually touching me so I didn't say anything. There was a problem with the camera, it didn't work, so my mate told us we'd have to try again. This time, perhaps emboldened by my silence, just before she pressed the button, he grabbed my chest for real. My blood went cold. Everything started to happen in slow motion, but the following moments were even more troubling. Wall of silence I waited for someone, anyone in the crowded room - one of his handlers, someone in charge, a proper grown-up – to say something. No one did. My friend and I exchanged astonished glances. I think we were both in shock. I often wonder which one of us felt worse; her, watching me stumble from the room in a daze, holding a photo of myself being felt up against my will, an expression on my face I'd never seen before captured on film. Or me, having to leave her with him. I threw the photo in the bin. If you'd have asked me before that day if there was any chance I would EVER chuck a picture of myself with anyone from Sex And the City I would have laughed in your face. No way! Five women have since accused Chris Noth of sexual assault, which he 'categorically denies'. Responding to the allegations further in 2023, Noth insisted that any sexual encounters he was involved in were consensual. However, his character was written out of And Just Like That in the wake of the claims and his final appearance was later edited out. He was also sacked from his role in The Equalizer. At the time, Sex and The City's Sarah Jessica Parker, Cynthia Nixon and Kristin Davis released a joint statement saying: 'We are deeply saddened to hear the allegations against Chris Noth. "We support the women who have come forward and shared their painful experiences. We know it must be a very difficult thing to do and we commend them for it.' No consequences Clearly what happened to me is barely worth mentioning in comparison to what these women say they went through. But I saw – felt – what Chris Noth was capable of in a crowded room full of people, while ostensibly working, and how unconcerned about any consequences he appeared. 6 6 Hardly shocking that SJP doesn't want to speak or write about him. I presume she wants to distance herself from him as much as possible. Let's hope that just like the spin-off, he is cancelled, for good. Chris Noth told The Sun in a statement: 'What is described by the reporter allegedly took place during a press junket 25 years ago and I honestly have no recollection of it. This was also previously raised by The Daily Mirror in 2022, and I didn't remember it then either. 'From this journalist's description, it sounds like a replicate of a rather popular photo from an entertainment magazine that I took years ago with Sarah Jessica Parker. 'I'm not sure if that was the intent but either way I am very sorry if I made the journalist uncomfortable. That certainly was not my intent."
The Guardian
a day ago
- The Guardian
The #MeToo campaign leader using the Epstein scandal to champion victims: ‘The survivors are the heroes'
The swirling political drama around the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his jailed accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the mixed verdicts in recent Harvey Weinstein and Sean 'Diddy' Combs trials, have raised questions around the health of the #MeToo social movement and its emphasis on raising awareness about sexual harassment. There are fears of a backlash to the testimonies and experiences of victims and survivors of sexual violence and a lessening of the will to hold perpetrators to account. But one person determined to keep survivors of sexual violence firmly at the forefront of public debate around the Epstein saga is the former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, who received a $20m settlement from 21st Century Fox in 2016 to resolve a sexual harassment lawsuit against the Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. 'The survivors are the heroes in this [Epstein] case because there would be no case without them and their courage and bravery in speaking up,' Carlson told the Guardian last week. Carlson, together with Julie Roginsky, who settled with Fox over claims she was denied a promotion after she refused Ailes, is now heading a pressure group, Lift Our Voices. The group aims to overturn legally binding non-disclosure agreements that prevent employees from speaking out on their experiences in the workplace, as neither Carlson nor Roginsky were able to do under settlement-attached NDAs they too signed. 'We aim to continue lifting [survivors] up and letting them know that we are here to support them,' Carlson said. It's a mission that has become particularly acute in recent days as an effort by Maxwell to win a sentence commutation or sentence reduction on her 2021 conviction on sex-trafficking charges. Remarkable in the ongoing controversy is the absence of young women who made allegations against Maxwell and Epstein and were in most instances paid out under an Epstein estate victims' compensation fund. The settlements, which amount to $121m to about 150 survivors, came with a commitment not to pursue future legal claims but permitted them to participate in criminal investigations and to share their stories publicly. Carlson and Roginsky acknowledge that, even as powerful professionals, adult women when they came forward, the balance of power was tipped in favor of the man they were accusing. Almost a decade later, there is little expectation that Epstein-Maxwell survivors will want to expose themselves while a political storm rages. On Thursday, the family of Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, called on Donald Trump to resist pardoning Maxwell, calling her a 'monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life'. Still, Roginsky says, the accounts of women used to be swept under the rug. 'The very fact that these survivors are believed is already a massive development in the way our culture treats these kinds of cases and reports.' Adds Carlson: 'Nobody is saying we don't believe these people, and we have to see their faces and hear their voices to believe them, or to prove this story actually existed, and that is a huge step forward as well as a victory for the movement. 'People want information about this [Epstein-Maxwell] story but they're not demanding that survivors come forward in order for it to be true,' Carlson adds. Behind the scenes Lift our Voices has championed federal legislation to make it easier for claimants to come forward. In 2022, Congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration for Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA), which gave employees the right to take their claims to court instead of secret arbitration. Another federal law, known as the Speak Out Act, means claimants are no longer bound by a pre-dispute NDA or non-disparagement agreements if they have experienced sexual harassment or assault at work. But the jury verdicts in both the second Weinstein trial, brought after the movie mogul's first conviction on sexual assault charges was thrown on appeal and succeeded in one out of three charges, and the Combs case, in which prosecutors failed to prove racketeering but succeeded on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, indicate that jurors, at least, are sending mixed signals to advocates for survivors of sexual violence. But Roginsky and Carlson are not deterred or deflated. 'Harvey Weinstein was found guilty and will be spending many more years in prison, so from that perspective it was a success,' says Roginsky. 'Sean Combs was also found guilty and will also be spending time in prison.' Carlson and Roginsky laud the testimony of Cassie Ventura, Combs's former girlfriend who, heavily pregnant, spent days on the stand walking jurors through her experience. 'She's been held up largely as a hero and an inspiration to many other women,' Roginsky says. 'So these are not setbacks, this is more evidence that the movement is not going away, moving forward, holding perpetrators accountable, and giving survivors space and respect to tell their stories,' she adds. Carlson points out that movements to change a culture are rarely a straight line of constant successes. 'But that doesn't mean there hasn't been significant change. We have to look at this globally and not in black-and-white,' she said. But as demands for more information on the Epstein-Maxwell sex-trafficking conspiracy mount, both Carlson and Roginsky are doubtful that this information should come from Maxwell or the victims of the conspiracy. 'We don't need Maxwell to tell the world what happened, especially a woman who is a known liar and somebody that I think we all understand will say whatever it takes to get out of prison even if that means protecting certain high-powered people who may not need to be protected,' says Roginsky. But fundamentally, adds Carlson, the will-she won't-she daily Maxwell show is a sideshow. 'This has nothing to do with the survivors. This is an abstraction for the Trump administration to be able to say look over here, not over there. 'It's preposterous that there would be any discussion over Maxwell getting any kind of a pardon,' she says. 'The fact that the president of the United States cannot say absolutely not to the most prolific child sex trafficker in a generation, besides Epstein, is a disgrace.' Trump told reporters last week that while he was allowed to issue a pardon or clemency to Maxwell 'it's something I have not thought about.' But the political consequences of that move, Carlson predicts, would be severe. She said: 'There would be an insurrection if that happens, and it wouldn't just be from the left or the center, it would also be from the right, because Maga is behind wanting more information, ironically. It's brought Maga, the middle and the Democrats together. The survivors should even be in the equation on this.'
The Guardian
2 days ago
- The Guardian
The #MeToo campaign leader using the Epstein scandal to champion victims: ‘The survivors are the heroes'
The swirling political drama around late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his jailed accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, and the mixed verdicts in recent Harvey Weinstein and Sean Puffy Combs trials, have raised questions around the health of the #MeToo social movement and its emphasis on raising awareness about sexual harassment. There are fears of a backlash to the testimonies and experiences of victim and survivors of sexual violence and a lessening of the will to hold perpetrators to account. But one person determined to keep survivors of sexual violence firmly at the forefront of public debate around the Epstein saga is former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson, who received a $20m settlement from 21st Century Fox in 2016 to resolve a sexual harassment lawsuit against Fox News chairman Roger Ailes. 'The survivors are the heroes in this [Epstein] case because there would be no case without them and their courage and bravery in speaking up,' Carlson told the Guardian last week. Carlson, together with Julie Roginsky, who settled with Fox over claims she was denied a promotion after she refused Ailes, are now heading a pressure group, Lift Our Voices. The group aims to overturn legally binding non-disclosure agreements that prevent employees from speaking out on their experiences in the workplace, as neither Carlson nor Roginsky were able to do under settlement-attached NDAs they too signed. 'We aim to continue lifting [survivors] up and letting them know that we are here to support them,' Carlson said. It's a mission that has become particularly acute in recent days as an effort by Maxwell to win a sentence commutation or sentence reduction on her 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges. Remarkable in the ongoing controversy is the absence of young women who made allegations against Maxwell and Epstein and were in most instances paid out under an Epstein estate victims' compensation fund. The settlements, which amount to $121m to around 150 survivors, came with a release to not to pursue future legal claims but permitted them to participate in criminal investigations and to share their stories publicly. Carlson and Roginsky acknowledge that, even as powerful professional, adult women when they came forward, the balance of power was tipped in favor of the man they were accusing. Almost a decade later, there is little expectation that Epstein-Maxwell survivors will want to expose themselves while a political storm rages. On Thursday, the family of Virginia Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, called on Donald Trump to resist pardoning Maxwell, calling her a 'monster who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of her life'. Still, Roginsky says, the accounts of women used to be swept under the rug. 'The very fact that these survivors are believed is already a massive development in the way our culture treats these kinds of cases and reports.' Adds Carlson: 'Nobody is saying we don't believe these people, and we have to see their faces and hear their voices to believe them, or to prove this story actually existed, and that is a huge step forward as well as a victory for the movement. 'People want information about this [Epstein-Maxwell] story but they're not demanding that survivors come forward in order for it to be true,' Carlson adds. Behind the scenes Lift our Voices has championed federal legislation to make it easier for claimants to come forward. In 2022, congress passed the Ending Forced Arbitration for Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFAA) which gave employees the right to take their claims to court instead of secret arbitration. Another federal law, known as the Speak Out Act, means claimants are no longer bound by a pre-dispute NDA or non-disparagement agreements if they have experienced sexual harassment or assault at work. But the jury verdicts in both the second Weinstein trial, brought after the movie moguls first conviction on sexual assault charges was thrown on appeal and succeeded in one out of three charges, and the Combs case, in which prosecutors failed to prove racketeering but succeeded on two lesser counts of transportation to engage in prostitution, indicate that jurors, at least, are sending mixed signals to advocates for survivors of sexual violence. But Roginsky and Carlson are not deterred or deflated. 'Harvey Weinstein was found guilty and will be spending many more years in prison, so from that perspective it was a success,' says Roginsky. 'Sean Combs was also found guilty and will also be spending time in prison.' Carlson and Roginsky laud the testimony of Cassie Ventura, Combs' former girlfriend who, heavily pregnant, spent days on the stand walking jurors through her experience. 'She's been held up largely as a hero and an inspiration to many other women,' Roginsky says. 'So these are not set backs, this is more evidence that the movement is not going away, moving forward, holding perpetrators accountable, and giving survivors space and respect to tell their stories,' she adds. Carlson points out that movements to change a culture are rarely a straight line of constant successes. 'But that doesn't mean there hasn't been significant change. We have to look at this globally and not in black-and-white,' she said. But as demands for more information on the Epstein-Maxwell sex trafficking conspiracy mount, both Carlson and Roginsky are doubtful that this information should come from Maxwell or the victims of the conspiracy. 'We don't need Maxwell to tell the world what happened, especially a woman who is a known liar and somebody that I think we all understand will say whatever it takes to get out of prison even if that means protecting certain high-powered people who may not need to be protected,' says Roginsky. But fundamentally, adds Carlson, the will-she won't-she daily Maxwell show is a sideshow. 'This has nothing to do with the survivors. This is an abstraction for the Trump administration to be able to say look over here, not over there. 'It's preposterous that there would be any discussion over Maxwell getting any kind of a pardon,' she says. 'The fact that the President of the United States cannot say absolutely not to the most prolific child sex trafficker in a generation, besides Epstein, is a disgrace.' Trump told reporters last week that while he was allowed to issue a pardon or clemency to Maxwell 'it's something I have not thought about.' But the political consequences of that move, Carlson predicts, would be severe. She said: 'There would be an insurrection if that happens, and it wouldn't just be from the left or the center, it would also be from the right, because Maga is behind wanting more information, ironically. It's brought Maga, the middle and the Democrats together. The survivors should even be in the equation on this.'
