Former US film producer Harvey Weinstein was found guilty on Monday on three charges of rape and sexual assault. The jury acquitted the defendant of one other charge while being unable to agree on the verdict on three other counts.
Weinstein, 70, who had been accused of using his influence in Hollywood to sexually prey on women, was charged with seven criminal counts involving four different women. Those included three counts of forcible rape, two counts of sexual battery by restraint, one count of forcible oral copulation and one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object. The movie mogul pleaded innocent to all the charges.
A Los Angeles jury convicted Weinstein on three charges – rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object and forcible oral copulation – with all accusations related to one of the women. The plaintiff, an Italian model identified as Jane Doe 1, insisted that the producer assaulted her in a hotel room in February 2013.
Following the verdict, she issued a statement, saying that “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back.” Describing the trial as “brutal,” she added that “I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
At the same time, Weinstein was acquitted of sexual battery of a massage therapist. The jury also delivered a split decision on charges which involved two other women, including actresses Lauren Young and Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. The judge declared a mistrial on those counts.
The producer faces a prison sentence of 18 to 24 years for the convictions. The exact term depends on how jurors decide regarding aggravated factors linked to the charges, with that hearing scheduled on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence after being found guilty of rape in 2020.
Allegations of sexual assault and rape against Weinstein, who was co-founder of entertainment company Miramax, came to light in 2017, with more than 80 women stepping up to accuse him of abuse. The revelations triggered the global #MeToo movement against sexual harassment.
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