Photo via Kena Betancur/AFP/Getty Images
A jury in Los Angeles found Harvey Weinstein guilty of raping a woman, but either found him not guilty or could not reach verdicts on other counts.
The jury deliberated for nine days and found the 70-year-old guilty on three charges: forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by a foreign object, and forcible rape. All of the charges against the former film producer pertained to one accuser referred to as Jane Doe 1.
Details provided by the New York Times state:
The jury could not decide on three other charges against him, related to other accusers, and found him not guilty on one count.
Prosecutors called Mr. Weinstein a “predator” who had used his power in the film industry to lure women to meet with him, then isolated and assaulted them.
Defense lawyers argued that the sex was consensual, that the women were exaggerating about the physical contact in some instances and that one of the accusers was lying altogether. They focused on inconsistencies in the accusers’ accounts and drew attention to cordial communications between them and Mr. Weinstein after the encounters.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, was among the women who testified against Mr. Weinstein, saying that he assaulted and raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2005. The jury did not decide on the two counts related to her accusations.
Mr. Weinstein has 21 years left to serve for his 2020 conviction in New York, but the state’s highest court agreed in August to consider his appeal. The possibility that he could win release there raised the stakes for the trial in California.
