Harvey Weinstein case judge declares mistrial on remaining rape charge
Global News
Deliberations ended a day after the jury delivered a partial verdict in Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial, convicting him of one of the top charges but acquitting him of another.
The judge in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes case declared a mistrial on the remaining rape charge after the jury foreperson said he wouldn’t continue deliberating.
Deliberations were ended Thursday, a day after the jury delivered a partial verdict in Weinstein’s sex crimes retrial, convicting the ex-studio boss of one of the top charges but acquitted him of another. Both of those charges concerned accusations of forcing oral sex on women in 2006. Those verdicts still stand.
The jury got stuck on a third charge involving accusations from Jessica Mann. The hairstylist and actor testified for days — as she did in 2020 — about the rape she said she endured in a Manhattan hotel room and about why she continued to see and have consensual encounters with Weinstein afterward.
Mann is ready to go to trial a third time, said Manhattan prosecutor Nicole Blumberg after the judge ended deliberations. No new trial date has yet been set.
The foreperson complained Wednesday that he felt bullied by another juror and said Thursday he wouldn’t go back into the jury room.
“No. I’m sorry,” he said when asked.
The jury of seven women and five men had unanimously reached decisions on the other charges last Friday, the foreperson told the judge. The verdict was delivered Wednesday only because Judge Curtis Farber asked whether there was agreement on any of the charges.
The third charge was over a rape accusation involving a woman who also said she had a consensual relationship with the Oscar-winning producer. Under New York law, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the other two counts.
