After deliberating for 26.5 hours, the jury in Harvey Weinstein’s New York trial has reached a verdict: Weinstein is guilty of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree. However, these are just two of the five charges leveraged against the disgraced producer.
According to CNN, Weinstein was found not guilty of two charges of predatory sexual assault and one count of rape in the first degree.
Six women testified against Weinstein in his New York trial. He was found guilty of charges filed by Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann. He was acquitted of other charges from Mann and Haley, as well as actress Annabella Sciorra.
Weinstein has now been incarcerated at New York’s Rikers Island jail. According to CNN, he has been assigned a New York state ID: 06581138Z.
He is listed as 5’11” and 210 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.
The New York City Department of Corrections does not list any particular facility though Weinstein’s team reportedly has asked for the North Infirmary Unit (NIU) at Rikers Island, per his lawyers’ statement.
Weinstein’s lawyers Donna Rotunno and Damon Cheronis also said they are working to have Weinstein brought to a special unit at Rikers’ Island jail in New York.
“We are working on assuring that Mr. Weinstein is brought to Rikers’ Island’s North infirmary unit (NIU) at the Anna M Kross Center complex or in protective custody so that he can get the best medical supervision and care possible.”
Once one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers and gatekeepers, Weinstein’s career collapsed in October 2017 after The New York Times and The New Yorker published stories detailing numerous accusations of sexual harassment and assault against him. Since then more than 80 women came forward with similar stories of Weinstein using his power and influence to take advantage of young female assistants and actresses over several decades.
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More charges await in Los Angeles
Last January, Los Angeles prosecutors charged Harvey Weinstein in with raping one woman and sexually assaulting another in separate incidents over a two-day period in 2013.
The former producer faces new felony charges of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint, Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey said in a statement.”We believe the evidence will show that the defendant used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then commit violent crimes against them.”
The charges came hours after Weinstein first appeared in a New York court for the start of his criminal trial on similar charges in a separate case.
According to the criminal complaint, Weinstein and a woman attended a Hollywood film festival on February 17, 2013, and later that night, he knocked on her hotel room door and was allowed entry into her room.
Once inside, they talked briefly before he allegedly attacked the woman, forced her to perform oral sex on him, digitally penetrated her vagina and raped her, the complaint says.
She said that she did not disclose the assault because he threatened her life if she spoke, the complaint says. The charges of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by use relate to that incident.
On February 19, Weinstein met with a woman and her acquaintance for a business meeting at a hotel eatery in West Los Angeles, the complaint says. Weinstein persuaded the two to accompany him to his hotel suite, and one woman unwittingly followed him into the bathroom, the complaint says.
He allegedly took off his clothes and prevented her from leaving, and then he held her in place by her breast as he masturbated, the complaint says. He faces a charge of felony sexual battery by restraint for that incident, Lacey said.
The reporting, which garnered the two outlets the Pulitzer Prize, also showed how Weinstein used his powerful team of attorneys and media allies to pressure the women into staying silent.
Celebrities react to conviction on Twitter
Weinstein’s conviction Monday was a bittersweet moment for many of his accusers and others involved in the #MeToo movement.
According to ABC News, the “Silence Breakers,” a group of women who have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, including actresses Ashley Judd and Rosanna Arquette, shared that while they found it “disappointing that today’s outcome does not deliver the true, full justice that so many deserve,” they were satisfied that “Harvey Weinstein will now forever be known as a convicted serial predator.”
As would be expected others took to Social Media to express their opinion on the conviction:
Weinstein’s defense team said in a statement that “issues” in the trial “will be addressed to a higher court” when they file their client’s appeal.
