Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday (June 11, 2025) of one of the top charges in his sex crimes retrial but acquitted of another, and jurors were as yet unable to reach a verdict on a third charge.
The split verdict meted out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors — but also to Weinstein — after the landmark case was thrown into limbo.
The partial verdict came after an extraordinary day in which the jury foreperson indicated he felt bullied and Weinstein himself urged the judge to halt the trial, declaring: “It’s just not fair.”
“My life is on the line, and you know what? It’s not fair,” the former Hollywood heavy-hitter declared after making an unusual request to address the court. “It’s time, it’s time, it’s time, it’s time to say this trial is over.”
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. But that conviction was overturned last year, and the case was sent back for retrial in the same Manhattan courthouse.
This time, a majority-female jury convicted the former studio boss of forcibly subjecting Miriam Haley, a producer and production assistant, to a criminal sex act in 2006.
But jurors acquitted Weinstein of another criminal sex act charge. It related to Kaja Sokola, a former model whose allegations of forcible oral sex date to 2006 but were added to the case last year.
And jurors were to continue deliberating Thursday (June 12, 2025) on a charge that he raped another woman, hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann, in 2013. Under New York law, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the first-degree criminal sex act offense.
Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anyone.
Jury deliberations had teetered Wednesday (June 11, 2025). The foreperson — who complained Monday (June 9, 2025) that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges — signalled to Judge Curtis Farber that he wanted to talk.
“He said words to the effect of ‘I can’t go back in there with the other jurors,’” Judge Farber explained later. The discussion was closed to the press and public, but Judge Farber later said the foreperson had expressed that he didn’t want to change his position and was being pressured, with another juror saying something like “I’ll meet you outside one day,” and yelling and screaming in the room.
Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala urged the judge to declare a mistrial, saying the foreperson had expressed concerns for his safety. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, however, said the foreperson hadn’t seemed afraid or apprehensive, just “stubborn.”
The episode was the latest sign of strain among the jurors. On Friday (June 6, 2025), one of them asked to be excused because he felt another member of the group was being treated unfairly. Weinstein’s lawyers asked unsuccessfully for a mistrial then, and again after the foreperson expressed his concerns Monday (June 9, 2025).
The trial once again turned a legal lens — and, to some extent the public eye — on the man whose reputed history of brutishness toward women propelled the #MeToo era that began in 2017.
Weinstein’s companies produced or distributed a string of best picture Oscar winners, from 1997’s The English Patient to 2012’s The Artist, plus scores of other films with Academy Award-winning performances, screenplays, music, or costume design. He personally stood on the Oscars stage as a producer of 1999 best picture winner Shakespeare in Love.
He also became a prominent Democratic donor.
Then an Italian model told police in 2015 that Weinstein had abruptly groped her in his New York office. No charges ever resulted from her allegations — a decision that haunted the Manhattan district attorney’s office two years later, when The New York Times and The New Yorker detailed decades of sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against Weinstein.
Those disclosures made #MeToo a global rallying cry for sexual misconduct awareness and accountability. Weinstein ultimately was charged, convicted and sentenced to prison in New York and California.
His California conviction stands, though he is appealing it. But New York’s highest court awarded Weinstein a new trial, faulting the former trial judge for letting prosecutors buttress their case with testimony from Weinstein accusers beyond those whose accusations had led to charges.
Those additional accusers didn’t testify at this spring’s retrial. But it was expanded with new charges related to Ms Sokola, a Polish psychotherapist who said Weinstein forced oral sex on her when she was a 19-year-old model.
And there were fresh bursts of tension in a case long full of graphic details and deeply personal testimony. A shaken Ms Sokola was confronted with a passage from her private journal. Ms Mann pointed indignantly at Weinstein as she walked past him in court. Ms Haley cursed at him from the witness stand.
Weinstein’s accusers — who all worked in show business or wanted to — said he exploited his Tinseltown influence to dangle career help, get them alone and then trap and force them into sexual encounters.
In a complexity they spent days explaining, the women stayed in contact with Weinstein, saw him again, and at times accepted or requested invitations or favours, according to testimony and documents. Ms Mann said she had a consensual relationship with Weinstein that began before and continued after he allegedly raped her.
The accusers said they were trying to reckon with what had happened, attempting to suppress the assaults for their careers’ sake or trying to keep the peace with an influential, well-connected and irascible man.
Weinstein chose not to testify. His attorneys portrayed his accusers as Hollywood wannabes and hangers-on who willingly hooked up with him to court opportunity, then recast the encounters as crimes years later to collect settlement funds and #MeToo approbation.
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.
Published – June 12, 2025 01:00 am IST