Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein once more discovered responsible of an assault – however acquitted on different intercourse expenses | EUROtoday

Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of a single rely of felony sexual act at his intercourse crimes retrial, closing one chapter within the yearslong saga of the onetime Hollywood honcho-turned-#MeToo outcast.

The jury discovered Weinstein not responsible on one other rely of felony sexual act and reached no verdict on the one rely of rape he had confronted. They deliberated for 5 days earlier than reaching a verdict on Wednesday.

Weinstein, 73, who appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court in a wheelchair after experiencing a litany of well being issues, checked out his lawyer in shock when the “not guilty” verdict was learn, in line with studies. He had determined to not testify in his protection throughout the six-week trial.

The former producer and Miramax studio co-founder had pleaded not responsible to raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and forcing oral intercourse on two others, individually, in 2006. He denied the allegations, and his attorneys keep that something that occurred between him and his accusers was consensual.

He was beforehand convicted in New York, but it surely was tossed by an appeals court docket.

Closing arguments within the retrial concluded on Wednesday with Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, portraying him because the falsely accused “original sinner” of the #MeToo period, whereas Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg informed jurors that Weinstein preyed on less-powerful ladies he thought would by no means converse up.

“Members of the jury, he raped three women. They all said, ‘no,’” Blumberg stated.

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“We heard a lot about ‘policing the bedroom’ yesterday,” Blumberg stated, referring to Aidala’s closing argument on Tuesday. “We don’t want to police bedrooms either – unless you’re forcibly raping someone inside them.”

On Tuesday, Aidala accused the alleged victims of mendacity on the stand.

“They are lying about what happened. Not about everything, but about a small slice – just enough to turn their regret, their buyers’ remorse, into criminality,” Aidala stated of the accusers.

During his closing, he veered into folksy jokes — generally re-enacting witnesses’ habits — as he contended that his consumer engaged in a “courting game,” not crimes, the Associated Press reported.

But Blumberg urged jurors to deal with Weinstein’s accusers and their days of grueling testimony.

“This was not a ‘courting game,’ as Mr. Aidala wants you to believe. This was not a ‘transaction,’” Blumberg shot again. “This was never about ‘fooling around.’ It was about rape.”

Aidala argued that all the pieces that occurred between the ex-producer and his accusers was a consensual, if “transactional,” change of favors. The legal professional accused prosecutors of “trying to police the bedroom” and zeroing in on the person seen as ”the poster boy, the unique sinner, for the #MeToo motion.”

“They tried to do it five years ago, and now there’s a redo, and they’re trying to do it again,” he informed jurors.

His hours-long summation touched on issues from the acclaimed, Weinstein-co-produced 1994 movie “Pulp Fiction” to his personal marriage and his grandmother’s Italian gravy, at instances taking part in for — and getting — laughs from jurors and Weinstein.

Aidala depicted the previous studio boss as a self-made New Yorker, whereas portray Weinstein’s accusers as troubled and canny “women with broken dreams” who plied him for film alternatives and different perks, stored participating with him for years after which turned on him to money in on his #MeToo undoing. All three acquired compensation by way of authorized processes separate from the felony trial.

Blumberg countered that Weinstein interpreted a sexual “no” as a cue to “push a little bit more, and if they still say no, just take it anyway.”

She argued that his accusers stayed in pleasant contact with Weinstein as a result of they had been attempting to work in leisure, they usually feared their careers can be squashed in the event that they crossed him.

“He chose people who he thought would be the perfect victims, who he could rape and keep silent,” the prosecutor stated. “He underestimated them.”

Weinstein had a decades-long run as one of many film business’s most influential folks. In 2017, allegations of sexual assault and harassment tanked his profession and catalyzed the #MeToo motion, which seeks accountability for sexual misconduct. More than 100 ladies, together with well-known actresses, have accused Weinstein of misconduct.

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He was subsequently convicted of intercourse crimes and sentenced to jail in New York and California. His California attraction hasn’t been determined.

Since the New York retrial opened April 23, prosecutors have introduced in additional than two dozen witnesses. The prosecution centered on Weinstein’s three accusers, who every confronted days of questions.

In usually graphic and generally tearful testimony, the ladies stated the Oscar-winning producer used his showbiz stature as a hook to prey on them.

Jessica Mann, who accused Weinstein of rape, was a hairstylist hoping to make it as an actress when she met him. The sexual assault accusers additionally had been attempting to construct careers in leisure: Miriam Haley was a manufacturing assistant and producer, and Kaja Sokola was a teenage mannequin who needed to get into appearing.

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Prosecutors added Sokola’s allegations to the case for the retrial. But another accusers from the primary trial weren’t a part of the second. The appeals court docket stated it was prejudicial to incorporate their accusations, which by no means resulted in expenses.

Weinstein, who has been held at New York City’s Rikers Island jail since his conviction was overturned, now faces a most sentence of as much as 29 years in jail.

He already will doubtless spend the remainder of his life in jail resulting from a 16-year jail sentence given to him after being discovered responsible of rape in California in December 2022.