Jurors were still unable to decide on a third charge against former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who was found guilty on Wednesday of one of the main accusations in his retrial for sex crimes but found not guilty of another.
After the historic case was put on hold, the split verdict gave Weinstein and his accusers and prosecutors some sense of vindication.
At a critical juncture for the #MeToo movement, Weinstein’s initial conviction five years ago appeared to solidify the fall of one of Hollywood’s most influential men. Last year, however, that conviction was reversed, and the case was sent to the same Manhattan courthouse for a new trial.
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This time, the former studio chief was found guilty by a majority-female jury of forcing someone to perform a criminal sex act in 2006.
However, jurors cleared Weinstein of a second 2006 criminal sex act charge. In addition, jurors were to continue considering the allegation that he had sexually assaulted another lady in 2013. The sentence for a third-degree rape charge is less severe than that for a first-degree criminal sex act crime in New York.
The 73-year-old Weinstein denies raping or sexually abusing anyone.
The foreperson once more asked to speak with the judge on “a situation” that he found unsettling, which caused the jury’s deliberations to falter on Wednesday.
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The man was being questioned in private at his request after he complained on Monday that other jurors were pressuring people to change their decisions and discussing topics unrelated to the allegations.
The foreperson indicated his desire to speak to Judge Curtis Farber while the jury was in court to hear the response to a previous request to rehear the language of a rape law.
“He said something like, ‘I can’t go back in there with the other jurors,'” Farber subsequently said. After being instructed to wait in a different room, the foreperson wrote down, “I need to talk to you about a situation.”
The foreperson said he wanted to speak privately when he was briefly brought into court. He then went behind closed doors with the court, prosecutors, and Weinstein’s attorneys.
Farber later claimed that the foreperson had stated that he didn’t want to change his viewpoint, whatever it may be, and that he was being bullied, even though the debate was closed to the public and media.
The court noted that there was shouting and screaming and that at least one other juror had remarked something along the lines of, “I’ll meet you outside one day.”
The foreperson’s worries were described more harshly by Weinstein attorney Arthur Aidala, who said that the man had expressed concern for his safety after his colleague panelist mentioned meeting him outside and added, “you don’t know me.”
“I don’t believe this juror is being shielded by the court. “Period,” Aidala stated, before requesting a mistrial.
But according to prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, the foreperson had appeared “stubborn” rather than scared or uneasy.
He claimed that he had already made up his mind, that he didn’t want to modify it, and that he was under pressure to do so. “That is the purpose of jury deliberations,” the prosecution stated.
The incident was the most recent indication of jury stress. One of them requested to be excused on Friday because he believed that another group member was receiving unfair treatment.
After the foreperson voiced his worries on Monday, Weinstein’s attorneys made another unsuccessful request for a mistrial. Throughout Tuesday, the jury continued its deliberations without sending any additional messages regarding interpersonal conflicts.
Accuser Jessica Mann’s testimony that he sexually assaulted her in a hotel room in Manhattan in 2013 was reheard by the five male and seven female jurors on Wednesday, the first day of their fifth day of deliberations. In order to conclude Tuesday’s discussions, the group requested that that testimony be reviewed.
While some jurors sat calmly while court stenographers read out the portions of Mann’s days-long testimony that they had requested, others seemed to take new notes on Wednesday. Some of the portions had previously been reheard by the jury last week.
In addition to forcing oral sex on two other women, Mimi Haley and Kaja Sokola, Weinstein, 73, entered a not guilty plea to the charges of raping Mann. His attorneys painted his accusers as opportunists who took advantage of him in order to gain an advantage in the entertainment industry. The Oscar-winning producer and former Hollywood powerbroker insists that he has never raped or sexually abused anyone.
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