Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape on Monday at a Los Angeles trial during another #MeToo moment, five years after he became a magnet for the movement.
After deliberating for nine days spanning more than two weeks, a jury of eight men and four women has reached its verdict in the second criminal trial against the once-powerful movie mogul, who is serving a 23-year sentence. 2 years in prison for rape and sexual assault. sentenced in New York.
Weinstein, 70, was found guilty of rape, forced oral intercourse and another count of sexual misconduct involving a woman named Jane Doe 1. The jury was hanged on a several crimes, notably those involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. .
The jury reported that they were unable to reach a verdict on her charges and those of another woman. A mistake was declared on those charges.
Weinstein was also acquitted of another woman’s sexual assault charge.
“It is time for the defendant’s reign of terror to end,” Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said during the prosecutor’s final argument last week. “Time to bring the king to justice.”
Lacking any forensic evidence or eyewitness accounts of the assaults that Weinstein’s accusers say happened between 2005 and 2013, the case relies heavily on stories and credibility. of the four women at the center of the allegations.
Accusers include Newsom, a documentary filmmaker whose intense and moving testimony about being raped by Weinstein in a hotel room in 2005 provided the trial with its most dramatic moments.
