Just over a month after it began, Harvey Weinstein’s sexual assault trial—one of the first major criminal cases to stem from the #MeToo movement—has come to a dramatic close. The disgraced Hollywood mogul has been found guilty on two counts, criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, stemming from the assault of two separate women, per a ruling announced late Monday morning. Weinstein was acquitted on three additional charges, including predatory sexual assault, which could have led to a life sentence. He has been sent to jail to await sentencing, according to the New York Times.
The ruling was decided upon by 12 jurors: five women and seven men, who took five days to settle on a verdict. Weinstein was being prosecuted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, represented in court by Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi. He was represented by a revolving door of lawyers in the months leading up to the trial, though attorney Donna Rotunno ultimately led the case, cross-examining Weinstein’s accusers and making the legal team’s closing argument last Thursday.
Weinstein’s trial stemmed from charges regarding two women: Miriam Haley, who claimed Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, and Jessica Mann, who claimed Weinstein raped her in 2013.
Mann underwent a particularly grueling three-day cross-examination over the course of the monthlong trial. On the first day of her testimony, she shocked the courtroom when she made graphic claims about Weinstein’s genitals, alleging that she “thought he was deformed and intersex” because he purportedly had “extreme scarring” and no testicles. On the second day, Mann was reduced to tears by the end of her cross-examination. On the third day, Rotunno suggested Mann had borderline personality disorder. “Are you my psychiatrist?” Mann retorted.
Four other women testified against Weinstein during the trial, including Sopranos actor Annabella Sciorra, who alleges that Weinstein raped her in the winter of 1993–1994, then stalked and harassed her for years afterward. (Weinstein denied the claims.) Rosie Perez, a friend of Sciorra’s, also testified that she and Sciorra discussed the alleged attack in the 1990s.
The Weinstein trial followed several explosive reports about the Oscar-winning producer’s alleged sexual misconduct published in 2017, in both the New York Times and the New Yorker. Those stories, which won Pulitzer Prizes for reporters Jodi Kantor, Megan Twohey, and Ronan Farrow, detailed Weinstein’s allegedly decades-long pattern of predatory behavior, accusing him of using his power and influence to coerce women into sex. More than 80 women went on to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, including actors Ashley Judd, Salma Hayek, Gwyneth Paltrow, Lupita Nyong’o, and Rose McGowan.
Weinstein repeatedly denied all claims of nonconsensual acts. Still, he quickly lost his place as one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers and tastemakers as the accusations snowballed. He was forced out of the Weinstein Company, his distribution company (which later went bankrupt), and exiled from the industry. The news also paved the way for the broader Hollywood sexual-misconduct reckoning and the renewed emergence of the #MeToo movement, originally founded by activist Tarana Burke in 2006.
Though Weinstein has faced numerous suits over the last two years, the New York trial has been the most high-profile legal action against him since the allegations first exploded. (He has also been charged with four counts of rape and sexual battery by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office; if convicted, he could face up to 28 years in prison. The case is ongoing. Weinstein’s attorneys have denied the claims.) One month ago, Judge James Burke cautioned potential jurors against conflating the trial with the greater reckoning: This case “is not a referendum on the #MeToo movement,” he said. Still, this guilty verdict will surely be viewed by some as a victory for the producer’s numerous accusers and the movement at large, officially rewriting Weinstein’s chapter in Hollywood history.
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