Los Angeles [US], June 12 (ANI): A Manhattan jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of one count of criminal sexual assault against former Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley.
However, the jury acquitted him of a second charge of sexually assaulting Kaja Sokola. The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict as to a third count involving Jessica Mann, and was told they will resume deliberations on Thursday morning, as per Variety.
The partial verdict comes after a weeks-long trial that began in April, during which three women testified about the alleged sexual assaults committed by the former Hollywood producer. Weinstein faced two counts of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree and one count of third-degree rape.
Weinstein recently himself addressed the court, urging the judge to call for a mistrial as several jurors continued to complain about tensions in the deliberation room.
“This is my life that’s on the line,” Weinstein told Judge Curtis Farber in the courtroom, adding, “I am not getting a fair trial.”
Weinstein then told the judge, “You are endangering me, Your Honor.”
Prior to that, the jury foreperson in Weinstein’s retrial informed the judge that tensions remain amid deliberations; the foreperson then requested to speak privately with the judge and the attorneys about the situation.
In his 2020 trial, Weinstein was found guilty of sexually abusing Haley and Mann. He was serving a 23-year sentence in New York until those convictions were overturned in April 2024. Weinstein pleaded not guilty to all charges in his retrial; both Haley and Mann testified against him again, according to Variety.
In their testimonies, Haley alleged that Weinstein forcibly sexually assaulted her at his apartment in 2006, while Mann accused him of raping her at a hotel in 2013.
Sokola, who did not testify in Weinstein’s 2020 trial, was first identified by the prosecution during opening arguments in late April. (She was previously referred to as Complaining Witness No. 3.) In her testimony, Sokola described two alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein: one in 2002, when she was 16, and another in a Manhattan hotel in 2006 — the latter being the incident for which Weinstein was charged in the retrial. (ANI)
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