The jury presiding over Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial announced it reached a verdict on Monday after having initially indicated it was split on the top charges against the disgraced Hollywood film producer.
The jury found Weinstein guilty of sexual assault after five days of debate, bringing the film producer to justice after he had been accused by scores of women over the years of luring them into hotel rooms with the promise of business opportunities, to then sexually assault them.
Weinstein was previously regarded as one of the most influential producers in film, and the explosive allegations against him marked a historic turning point during the creation of the #MeToo movement.
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Weinstein has been found guilty in two counts – third-degree rape and sexual assault.
He has been acquitted on counts of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape.
Jurors signaled their struggles with the Sciorra charges four days into deliberations. On Friday, after reviewing sections of her testimony and related evidence, they sent a note to the judge indicating they were deadlocked on the counts but had reached a unanimous verdict on the others. After some debate in the courtroom, the judge ordered jurors to keep deliberating.
While Weinstein did not testify, his lawyers contended that any sexual contact was consensual and that his accusers went to bed with him to advance their careers.
The defense seized on the fact that two of the women central to the case stayed in contact with Weinstein through warm and even flirty emails — and had sex with him — well after he supposedly attacked them.
AP
I was assaulted by Harvey Weinstein and I followed the trial religiously. While it is reassuring to know that Weinstein will serve some time behind bars, we are still in need of a justice system that recognizes how hard these crimes are to report and that respects the trauma women go through when assaulted and in court. The trial should never have looked the way it did.
When this trial began in early January, I was full of hope. The powerful producer who had assaulted me when I was a young actress was finally facing Lady Justice."
Harvey Weinstein’s criminal trial has ended in New York City with the disgraced movie mogul convicted on charges of rape in the third degree and a criminal sexual act in the first degree.
He must now face additional allegations in California.
The producer could spend up to 28 years in prison if convicted on the California charges, which include forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery.
Then, in the fall of 2017, reports of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of predatory behavior broke. Like many others, I found my voice. Since then, over 100 women have spoken out publicly, alleging that they were abused by Harvey Weinstein and the similarities in our stories are undeniable. We couldn’t all be lying or colluding or conspiring to bring one man down. I felt as if we were finally collectively having our day in court.
As we faced those first days of jury selection and opening statements, I had faith that this trial would do even more to bring forward Harvey Weinstein’s criminal behavior and challenge the systems and cultures that allowed a predator to go unchecked for so many years. After all, the injustices that had come to light with the MeToo movement were innumerable. Women had risen up and mobilized the world over to fight for equality, dignity and freedom from sexual harassment and assault. I was optimistic that we would begin to see our justice system catch up with the current culture."
There’s no denying that Rotunno has leveraged the shock factor of her own existence: By defending a man accused by so many women of sex crimes, she stands as the last obstacle between Weinstein’s accusers and jail time. She is not the obstacle you might expect. But she is the obstacle we got."
She added: "We will change the laws in the future so that rape victims are heard and not discredited and so that it's easier for people to report their rapes."
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