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A jury convicted Harvey Weinstein of one sexual assault charge but acquitted him of another, delivering a split verdict in his retrial on sexual assault accusations spanning his career as a Hollywood producer.
Judge Curtis Farber of New York Supreme Court declared a mistrial on Thursday on a third charge, of rape, against the former Miramax studio chief after jurors could not reach a verdict.
Manhattan district attorney Alvin Bragg told reporters on Thursday that he was “ready to go forward to trial again” on the third charge, a rape charge that stemmed from Weinstein’s alleged attack on actress Jessica Mann in 2013. Mann deserved a verdict, he said.
The allegations against Weinstein became the flashpoint for the global #MeToo movement nearly a decade ago.
The retrial began in April after New York’s highest court last year overturned his 2020 sex crimes conviction, saying prosecutors should not have been allowed to introduce allegations by alleged victims who were not part of the case.
During the new trial, Weinstein’s lawyers sought to persuade the New York jury that the film producer’s reported sex abuse was consensual, maintaining “the casting couch is not a crime scene”, largely a repeat of his defence in the first prosecution.
The retrial descended into chaos on Wednesday as a divided jury deliberated, with jurors arguing and shouting at each other, according to an account given to the judge. The judge was told one juror had said to another: “I’ll see you outside one day.”
The jury convicted Weinstein of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, but found him not guilty of a charge of forcing oral sex on actress Kaja Sokola the same year. But it could not reach a verdict on a rape charge related to Mann.
“I want to say to Ms Sokola, I’m deeply sorry that that was the result,” Bragg said at a press conference on Thursday. “Without the courage of survivors like you, prosecutors like us cannot pursue accountability and justice.”
Asked about jurors’ conduct, he said the “vigorous and robust exchange of ideas” among them was a “hallmark of our system”.
“I am so deeply grateful to the jury,” Haley said, adding that the verdict “gives me hope”.
Sokola said in she was “relieved that Harvey Weinstein will be held accountable for some of his crimes”, adding: “Harvey Weinstein will remain behind bars and that is a win.”
Her lawyer, Lindsay Goldbrum, said: “Kaja may not have received the verdict she deserved, but her truth was heard.”
“I would never lie about rape or use something so traumatic to hurt someone,” Mann said. “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.”
Weinstein’s lawyers did not respond to requests for comment.
The 73-year-old, who attended the hearings in a wheelchair, did not testify. He has cancer and other health problems, a spokesperson has previously said.
Separately, Weinstein was convicted of sex crimes in California in 2022 and sentenced to 16 years in prison. His lawyers are appealing against that conviction.
The 2020 conviction in New York was seen as a landmark moment in the #MeToo movement, which sought to hold powerful men accountable for sexual abuse and harassment. Allegations against Weinstein triggered a reckoning in which powerful men around the world were held accountable for sexual misconduct.
