Jurors began deliberating Thursday in Harvey Weinstein’s New York intercourse crimes retrial, tasked with deciding — once more — a case that encapsulated the #MeToo motion.
The seven-woman, five-man jury is contemplating two counts of prison intercourse act and one depend of rape, every referring to a distinct accuser and a distinct date. On this case, the prison intercourse act cost is the upper diploma felony. The jury acquired the case after a juror was changed by an alternate when an sickness stored her from court docket.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not responsible.
Practically eight years in the past, a collection of sexual misconduct allegations towards the Oscar-winning film producer propelled the #MeToo motion. A few of these accusations later generated prison fees and convictions in New York and California.
The New York conviction from 2020 was subsequently overturned, resulting in the retrial earlier than a brand new jury and a distinct decide.
Jurors heard greater than 5 weeks of testimony, together with prolonged and typically fiery questioning of Weinstein’s three accusers within the case.
Jessica Mann stated he raped her in 2013, when she was attempting to construct an performing profession. Miriam Haley accused him of forcibly performing oral intercourse on her in 2006, when she was searching for work in leisure manufacturing.
Kaja Sokola, who wasn’t concerned in Weinstein’s first trial, instructed jurors that he pressured oral intercourse on her, too, throughout 2006. On the time, she was a teenage vogue mannequin attempting to interrupt into performing.
“They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant’s world, the entertainment industry,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg instructed jurors in her closing argument Tuesday. She contended that Weinstein let the ladies suppose he was fascinated by their careers when what really him had been their our bodies, and “he was going to have their our bodies and contact their our bodies whether or not they needed him to or not.”
Weinstein selected to not testify. His protection known as different witnesses, together with some former pals of Sokola’s and Mann’s.
Weinstein’s attorneys argued that each one three accusers consented to Weinstein’s advances as a result of they needed assist with their Hollywood goals. All three stayed on pleasant phrases with him afterward, some extent the protection emphasised.
“It’s transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him,” protection lawyer Arthur Aidala stated in his summation Tuesday.
