Harvey Weinstein in custody after found guilty of sexual assault and rape in #MeToo trial

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Hollywood Producer Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of sex crime and rape, but acquitted him of the most serious charges against him, predatory sexual assault. Donna Rotunno, Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer, has also been talking to reporters outside court, promising an appeal.

The Hollywood producer was convicted of the third-degree rape of the hairstylist Jessica Mann in 2013, and first-degree criminal sexual act against the former actress Mimi Haleyi, who alleged Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006. Both women gave emotional testimonies about the alleged abuse they endured from Weinstein and the complicated relationships they maintained with him for years afterwards.

 

The verdict offered a measure of justice to the dozens of women who have come forward with similar allegations against Harvey Weinstein. For many, the trial was a crucial test in the effort to hold powerful men accountable for sexual harassment in the workplace.

 

Harvey Weinstein, 67, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison for the criminal sexual act conviction, and up to four years in prison for the rape conviction. Judge James Burke revoked Harvey Weinstein's bail on Monday and remanded him to jail, where he will await his sentencing on March 11. 

As the jury walked into the courtroom to announce that it had reached a verdict, Harvey Weinstein sat between his lawyers, staring straight ahead, as four court officers stood behind him. Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney, was nearby, in the front row. After the verdict was read, Justice James M. Burke thanked the jurors for their “care and concentration” before they left the courtroom. As they filed out, Juror No. 6 stared at Harvey Weinstein.

 

During the trial, prosecutors sought to bolster Mann's and Haleyi's allegations with the testimony of a third accuser, the actress Annabella Sciorra, who alleged Weinstein raped her in her Manhattan apartment in the winter of 1993 or 1994. Though Sciorra's allegations were too old to result in standalone criminal charges due to the statute of limitations, prosecutors used her allegations as a basis for two predatory sexual assault charges for Haleyi and Mann.

 

The judge then announced that Harvey Weinstein would immediately be sent to jail to await his sentencing. But as court officers approached him, the producer seemed stunned and refused to move. There was no physical or forensic evidence presented at trial pertaining to Mann's and Haleyi's claims, and Weinstein's defence team called a number of witnesses who seemed to contradict or cast doubt on the women's stories.

 

Justice Burke allowed the prosecution to call four women as witnesses to corroborate the five charges stemming from Ms. Mann’s and Ms. Haley’s claims against Harvey Weinstein. One of those witnesses was Ms. Sciorra, who says she was raped by Harvey Weinstein nearly 30 years ago in her Manhattan apartment.

 

She was called to support the charges of predatory sexual assault, which require proving that a defendant attacked at least two victims. The jury ultimately did not convict Harvey Weinstein on those counts. The three other women were permitted to testify to bolster the prosecution’s contention that Harvey Weinstein engaged over time in a pattern of sexually abusive behaviour.

 

None of the four women’s accounts could be formally charged as crimes on their own because the alleged attacks were too old to prosecute under New York’s statute of limitations.

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