The jury in the Harvey Weinstein trial on Monday found the disgraced Hollywood mogul guilty on two counts, including rape in the third degree.
Jurors deliberated for more than 26 hours at the New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, after listening to three weeks of testimony — including from 28 prosecution witnesses alone.
Specifically, Weinstein was found guilty of a criminal sexual act in the first degree (against former production assistant Miriam Haley, in 2006) and rape in the third degree (against aspiring actress Jessica Mann, in 2013). The former charge carries a possible sentence of five to 25 years in prison, while the latter will hit the accused with probation or up to four years in prison.
Weinstein, however, was acquitted of the two most serious charges against him, for predatory sexual assault. Had he been found guilty there, it would have confirmed a pattern of behavior that included allegedly forcing sex on actress Annabella Sciorra. (Weinstein’s alleged rape of Sciorra was itself not among the charges, since the incident happened too long ago under state law.)
Weinstein’s conviction on the two counts is expected to be appealed, while he next faces charges of sex crimes in Los Angeles (filed the same day that his New York trial got underway).
Weinstein turned himself in May 2018, seven months after the New Yorker published the scathing accounts of 13 women who alleged that he had sexually harassed or assaulted them. His New York trial commenced on Jan. 22 with opening statements.
Among the wave of TV-related fallout for the allegations against Weinstein, Amazon months after the New Yorker story broke scrapped its plans for a drama series that was to star Robert De Niro and Julianne Moore, since it was produced by The Weinstein Company. (Amazon had already given the series a two-season order, with a $ 160 million commitment.) Additionally, Weinstein Company series in October 2017 removed the founder’s name from credits, starting with Project Runway. The fallen titan was also expelled from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.
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