Harvey Weinstein found guilty of rape in Los Angeles trial – Daily Breeze

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By ANDREW DALTON (AP Entertainment Writer)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a month-long trial and nine days of deliberations, jurors in Los Angeles on Monday found Harvey Weinstein guilty of the rape and sexual assault of just one of the four accusers he was charged with. to have abused.

But the three counts involving an Italian actor and model known at trial as Jane Doe 1 still dealt a heavy blow to the disgraced movie mogul and provided another moment of judgment #MeToo, five after he became a magnet for the movement.

Weinstein, 70, who has been serving a 23-year sentence for two years for a rape and sexual assault conviction in New York that is under appeal, could face up to 24 years in prison in California when he will be condemned.

He was found guilty of rape, forced oral sex and another count of sexual misconduct involving the woman who said he appeared uninvited at her hotel room door during a film festival in Los Angeles in 2013.

“Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get it back. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to go through with it, and I did,” the woman said in a statement after the verdict. “I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a jail cell from his living.”

Weinstein was acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a massage therapist who treated him at a hotel in 2010.

The jury was unable to reach a decision on charges involving two accusers, including rape and sexual assault charges involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, documentary filmmaker and wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. A mistrial was ordered on these counts.

Weinstein looked down at the table and appeared to put his face in his hands as the first charges were read. He looked forward to reading the rest of the verdict.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys did not immediately comment on the verdict.

“Harvey Weinstein can never rape another woman. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars, where he belongs,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s attorneys have used the sexism, misogyny and bullying tactics to intimidate, belittle and ridicule us, the survivors. The lawsuit was a stark reminder that we, as a society, have work to do.

Siebel Newsom’s intense and dramatic testimony, in which she describes being raped by Weinstein in a hotel room in 2005, brought the trial its most dramatic moments. But only eight of the 12 jurors agreed to find Weinstein guilty on those counts.

Jurors were deadlocked 10-2 on a sexual battery count involving Lauren Young, the only accuser to testify at both Weinstein trials. She said she was a model aspiring actress and screenwriter who met Weinstein about a screenplay in 2013 when he trapped her in a hotel bathroom, groped her and groped her. masturbated in front of her.

With no forensic evidence or eyewitness accounts of years-old allegations, the case hinged heavily on the stories and credibility of the four women at the center of the charges.

The women’s stories echoed allegations from dozens of others that have emerged since Weinstein became a #MeToo lightning rod beginning with stories in The New York Times in 2017. A film about that reporting, “She Said,” came out during the trial, and the jurors were repeatedly warned not to see him.

It was the defense that made #MeToo an issue during the trial, pointing out that none of the four women turned themselves in to authorities before the movement made Weinstein a target.

Defense attorneys said two of the women – including the one he would be convicted of raping – were lying entirely about their meetings with Weinstein. They said the other two had “100% consensual” sexual interactions which they later reframed.

Defense attorneys said during the trial that if Siebel Newsom hadn’t risen to fame later, she would be “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead in Hollywood.”

“Regret is not the same as rape,” Weinstein’s attorney Alan Jackson said in closing argument.

He urged jurors to look beyond the women’s emotional testimony and focus on factual evidence.

“‘Believe us because we’re crazy, believe us because we cried,'” Jackson told jurors. “Well, fury doesn’t make reality. And tears don’t tell the truth.

All of the women involved in the charges went through Jane Doe in court. The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly or agree to be named through their attorneys, as the women named here did. .

Prosecutors called 40 other witnesses to try to give context and corroborate these stories. Four were other women who were not part of the charges but testified that Weinstein raped or sexually assaulted them. They were brought to the stand to establish a pattern of sexual predation.

Weinstein beat four other felony charges before the trial even ended when prosecutors said a woman he was accused of twice raping and sexually assaulting twice would not appear to testify. They refused to give a reason. Judge Lisa Lench dismissed those charges.

Weinstein’s latest sentencing offers a victory for victims of sexual misconduct by famous men following a few legal setbacks, including the dismissal of Bill Cosby’s conviction last year. The rape trial of ‘That ’70s Show’ actor Danny Masterson, held simultaneously and just down the hall from Weinstein, ended in a mistrial. And actor Kevin Spacey was victorious in a civil sexual assault trial in New York last month.

Weinstein’s conviction in New York survived an initial appeal, but the case is expected to be heard in the state’s highest court next year. The California conviction, also likely to be appealed, means he will not walk free even if the East Coast conviction is overturned.

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Follow AP Entertainment writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton

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For more on the Harvey Weinstein trial, visit: https://apnews.com/hub/harvey-weinstein

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