Weinstein faces a five- to 25-year sentence for the criminal sexual act and as long as four years on a third-degree rape count. He was acquitted of rape in the first degree and charges of predatory sexual assault that could have resulted in a life sentence.
The 67-year-old movie producer, who is due to be sentenced on March 11 and plans to appeal, heard the verdict without expressing any emotion in an otherwise silent courtroom -- though he then turned to his lawyers and
He was led away in handcuffs by a pair of court officers, one holding each arm, his walker remaining behind in the courtroom. The judge ordered Weinstein to be sent to the infirmary at New York City’s Rikers Island jail. Lead prosecutor Joan Illuzzi and her colleague Meghan Hast exchanged a smile as they left the courtroom.
The trial marked an extraordinary moment in a national reckoning over the abuse and assault of women in the workplace. Much has changed since the New York Times and the New Yorker reported in late 2017 that dozens of women had accused Weinstein of preying on them, unleashing similar claims against other powerful men.
“This trial -- and the jury’s decision today -- marks a new era of justice, not just for the Silence Breakers, who spoke out at great personal risk, but for all survivors of harassment, abuse and assault at work,”
Since the allegations against Weinstein were first widely reported, some 1,400 powerful people have been publicly accused of harassment, abuse or assault, according to Temin, the crisis consultants. Many suffered professional consequences of one kind or another. The crisis consultancy Temin & Co. puts the current number of Weinstein accusers at 111.
Manhattan District Attorney
“These are the eight women who changed the course of history in the fight against sexual violence,” Vance said in a statement. “These are eight women who pulled our justice system into the 21st century by declaring that rape is rape, and sexual assault is sexual assault, no matter what.”
Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala said the defense would appeal the guilty verdicts and that he was “very confident” in the outcome. He called his client “a very strong man” who has remained “very calm” in the face of the verdict, and said he would ask an appeals court this week to order Weinstein’s release pending his sentencing.
Aidala, who related Weinstein’s response to the verdicts, added, “I put my hand on him and I said, ‘Harvey, it’s gonna be OK.’”
Lead defense lawyer Donna Rotunno had asked New York State Supreme Court Justice
The jury, made up of seven men and five women, deliberated for five days and last week suggested they might be
Weinstein had been on trial in Manhattan since Jan. 6, charged with forcing oral sex on “Project Runway” assistant
To show a pattern of sexual activity without consent, prosecutors called three additional witnesses who allege Weinstein attacked them.
The verdict appeared to reflect skepticism of Mann’s and Sciorra’s testimony. Weinstein’s lawyers pressed both Sciorra and Perez on the lack of specificity of their memories about an incident that allegedly happened more than 25 years ago. The defense cross-examined Mann for more than two days, suggesting she had continued to have sexual encounters with Weinstein after the alleged attack until late 2016 -- a behavior typical of victims, according to a forensic psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution.
Weinstein’s lawyers invoked affectionate emails and sustained relationships with Weinstein long past the alleged attacks, to paint a picture of consensual sex with mutual benefits. It was the women who were using Weinstein, they told the jury.
In the end, though, Weinstein’s lawyers couldn’t persuade the jury that the encounters with Haley and Mann were at worst transactional and that the woman is responsible for what happens to her -- a go-to defense in sexual assault trials that’s riskier in the #MeToo era.
Weinstein still faces
#MeToo advocates stress that the movement is about more than the Weinstein trial.
“These really brave women have unleashed something that is bigger than anything we could have ever predicted,” said Fatima Goss Graves, the president and chief executive officer of the National Women’s Law Center.
Workplaces have bolstered their sexual harassment policies. Some of the biggest companies, including
But Weinstein’s conviction “should not be viewed as a statement for or against a movement,” said Laura Brevetti, a former federal prosecutor in Brooklyn who has defended clients accused of sex crimes.
Instead, she said, it is “a clear vindication of the goal that so many have tried to achieve for decades -- that a person who has been sexually abused by anyone, especially someone in a position of power or authority, should not remain silent about it, that a victim has the right and channel to report it, and that our judicial system can ultimately bring justice to a victim.”
The
Read More
Accusers Could Send Producer to Prison for Life Weinstein Lawyer Mocks D.A.’s Case, Urges ‘Courage’ on Jury Weinstein Was a ‘Predator’ With ‘Insurance,’ Prosecutor Says ‘I Think I Was Raped’: Jury Hears Rosie Perez Back Up Sciorra Accuser Called Weinstein a ‘Soul Mate,’ Ex-Friend Testifies Jessica Mann Is Grilled on Contact After Alleged Rape Weinstein’s Dream Jury Is Conservative, Traditional, Skeptical
(Updates with Weinstein’s remark in third paragraph and Vance’s in eighth and ninth paragraphs)
--With assistance from
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To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Peter Jeffrey, Tina Davis
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