NEW YORK _ A divided jury in the Harvey Weinstein prosecution was ordered to continue deliberations next week after declaring it was deadlocked Friday on the top sex crime charges against the Oscar-winning producer.
The seven men and five women, in their fourth day with the case, could not reach agreement on the top charges of predatory sexual assault _ allegations carrying a potential life sentence for Weinstein. While some of the jurors appeared angry and stressed out, Judge James Burke instructed them to continue deliberations in hopes of getting past the deadlock before telling them to return Monday.
"Any verdict you return on any counts must be unanimous ... so I will ask you to continue your deliberations," said Burke. "Thank you for your hard work."
Burke, as planned since Thursday, sent the jurors home at 3 p.m. despite their last-minute request for more time to resolve their sticking points. Several of the jurors did not appeared pleased over the day's developments, and all will now come back Monday morning in hopes of reaching a unanimous verdict on all five counts.
"Just remember you are in a critical stage," the judge warned the 12 jurors. "Deliberations must be conducted only in the jury room, therefore all deliberations must now cease."
The defense indicated it would accept a partial verdict on the other three counts, accusing Weinstein of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcibly performing oral sex on Mimi Haley in 2006. But prosecutors requested the panel continue in an effort to reach a unanimous verdict on all the counts.
The jurors said they had reached agreement on the other three charges against Weinstein.
The problem appears to be testimony by actress Annabella Sciorra, the first of six Weinstein accusers to testify at the Manhattan Supreme Court trial. But the jurors, after initially asking for a readback of all Sciorra's testimony on cross-examination and re-direct by prosecutors, sent out a note to stop before their entire request was fulfilled.
The jurors were apparently satisfied by what they heard from defense attorney Donna Rotunno's questions and Sciorra's answers. Sciorra's testimony is key in the charge of predatory sexual assault against Weinstein.
The jurors also sent Burke a second note asking for a 10-minute break outside the courthouse on a brisk but sunny afternoon before declaring they were at an impasse.
Sciorra, an Emmy nominee for her work on "The Sopranos," recounted how she was unable to fight off the 300-pound producer when he appeared, uninvited, at her apartment door in the winter of 1993-94. Sciorra, now 59, testified that Weinstein barged inside, forcing the 110-pound actress into her bedroom and raping her.
"He was too big," she testified when asked by Rotunno if she tried to escape the apartment. "He was frightening."
