A jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of one count in his sexual assault retrial as they returned a partial verdict after days of apparently tense deliberations.
Weinstein, 73, faced three charges. He was accused of third-degree rape, and two counts of first-degree criminal sexual assault.
The jury told the judge they found Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual assault against Miriam Haley.
The jury found Weinstein not guilty of criminal sexual assault regarding accuser Kaja Sokola.
The jury told the judge they have not reached a verdict on the charge of third degree rape involving Jessica Mann. The judge sent the jury home for the day, and told them they would continue to deliberate on that count Thursday.
The jury is made up of seven women and five men. They started deliberating Thursday. The verdict came after days of apparently tense deliberations, with jurors sending notes to the judge asking to speak with him privately. Weinstein’s defense attorneys has repeatedly asked for a mistrial.
Wednesday, the jury foreperson asked to speak to the judge in private, saying there was infighting going on between the jurors, with one allegedly telling another they’d meet them outside one day as an apparent threat.
Weinstein himself even addressed the court himself Wednesday, saying “This is my life that’s on the line, I am not getting a fair trial. You are endangering me.”
Weinstein’s defense attorney Arthur Aidala told the judge he was disgusted by what was happening. The judge told Aidala the tension in the jury room appears to be schoolyard antics.
Kaja Sokola speaks out
Because the jury is still deliberating on the remaining count, neither the prosecutors nor defense attorneys could comment about the outcome to the press.
Sokola, however, spoke out after Wednesday’s proceedings.
“I’m very happy he’s convicted. That’s all that matters,” Sokola said.
Mann released a statement.
“I would never lie about rape or use something so traumatic to hurt someone,” Mann said in her statement. “Coming forward cost me everything. My privacy, my safety. I laid bare my trauma, my shame – everything I’d tried to bury just to keep living. Still, I stood up and told the truth. Again and again.”
Legal expert on Wednesday’s happenings
“This is really rare,” said Rich Schoenstein, vice chair of litigation practice at Tarter Krinsky & Drogin. “We’re well into deliberations, and the jury essentially said we’ve agreed on two of the three counts. On one of the counts, we find him guilty. On another of the counts, we find him not guilty. And on the third count we haven’t been able to reach a decision. And remember, each count is basically a different victim … this is just a different decision with respect to each of three women.”
The charges against Harvey Weinstein
The trial involved accusations from three women: Haley, Mann and Sokola.
Haley and Sokola both testified Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on each of them on separate occasions – Haley at Weinstein’s apartment in July 2006 and Sokola at a Manhattan hotel sometime in late April or early May 2006.
Mann testified Weinstein raped her at a New York hotel in 2013.
All three accusers took the stand during the trial, along with Sokola’s former roommate and an ex-aide who worked for Weinstein’s film production company. Weinstein himself decided not to testify, his attorney said.
Haley and Mann’s accusations were the focus of Weinstein’s original 2020 trial. Sokola came forward with her accusations as that trial was ongoing, and the related charges were added to the retrial.
Harvey Weinstein trial timeline
These charges date back to October 2017 when a bombshell exposé into Weinstein’s alleged misconduct was published in The New York Times, sparking the #MeToo movement.
He surrendered to police in Lower Manhattan months later, in May 2018, and was arraigned on multiple sex assault charges, some of which were later tossed.
As his New York trial got underway in January 2020, he was also indicted on separate sex assault charges in Los Angeles.
On Feb. 24, 2020, after five days of deliberations, Weinstein was found guilty of third-degree rape and criminal sexual act. He was acquitted of three other counts, including predatory sexual assault. The following month, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
In December 2022, a Los Angeles jury found Weinstein guilty of three counts of sexual assault, including rape. Two months later, he was sentenced to 16 years in prison on those charges.
Weinstein’s 2020 conviction was overturned by the State of New York Court of Appeals in April 2024 because the judge in the original trial allowed prosecutors to call alleged victims whose accusations were not part of the charges against Weinstein.
The retrial began April 23, 2025, with Weinstein facing an additional new sex crime charge. The trial lasted just over five weeks, with closing arguments given on June 3. Jury deliberations began June 5.
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