A jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, both relating to the same person, at his trial in Los Angeles.
The guilty charges were for forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object of Jane Doe 1, an Italian model, at the Mr. C Hotel in the city in February 2013.
Three other women had also accused him of rape and sex assaults which took place between 2005 and 2013.
Weinstein was found not guilty of sexual battery by restraint of Jane Doe 3, a massage therapist.
On charges of sexual battery by restraint of Jane Doe 2 — previously identified as actress and screenwriter Lauren Young — and forcible rape and forcible oral copulation of Jane Doe 4, who has previously been identified as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the jury was hung and could not deliver a unanimous verdict. A mistrial was therefore declared on those charges.
As the initial guilty verdicts were read to the court, Weinstein looked down at the table and appeared to put head in hands. He then looked straight ahead as the rest of the charges were recounted.
The jury, made up of nine men and three women, reached their decision after 10 days of deliberations and 41 hours of debate.
After the verdicts, Jane Doe 1 released a statement, saying: “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did … I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
During her testimony, Jane Doe 1 had said she was in Los Angeles for the Italia Film Festival in February 2013. After being introduced to Weinstein at an event, she said he showed up at her hotel, bullied his way into her room and aggressivey demanded to see her naked. She said Weinstein forced her to orally copulate him and then pulled her into the bathroom where he raped her. Jane Doe 1’s true identity has never been revealed.
70-year old Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault after being convicted in New York in 2020 on different sex crime charges, although he has appealed that verdict.
A total of 44 witnesses testified during the five-week trial where each of the victims testified anonymously.
Following the verdict Elizabeth Fegan, who represented Siebel Newsom — the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom — released a statement.
She said: “My client shared her story not with an expectation to testify but to support all the survivors who bravely came forward. While we are heartened that the jury found Weinstein guilty on some of the counts, we are disappointed that the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on Jane Doe 4.
“She will continue to fight for all women and all survivors of abuse against a system that permits the victim to be shamed and re-traumatized in the name of justice.”
Four additional “prior bad acts” witnesses — women who were not part of the case, but said they had also been sexually assaulted by Weinstein — were also allowed to take the stand to establish a pattern of his behavior and provided emotionally-charged testimony.
One of those victims, Ashley M., testified she was raped by the disgraced Miramax and Weinstein Company producer in a hotel in Puerto Rico while she was working as the body double for actress Romola Garai.
Meanwhile, Siebel Newsom broke down in tears when she recounting how Weinstein had allegedly raped her in 2005 at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.
“I’m standing. I’m resisting,” she testified. “Horror. I’m trembling. This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll that he’s just trying to masturbate off of.”
She also got visibly angry later in the case when defense attorney Mark Werksman asked her to show how she had “faked an orgasm” with his client to the courtroom.
Siebel Newsom retorted, “This is not ‘When Harry Met Sally.’ I’m not doing that.”
In her closing argument, Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said the former Hollywood titan lured the women to hotel rooms under the guise of business meetings.
Martinez said Weinstein also used his female employees and associates to reach out and “deliver” the victims to the hotel rooms. Once inside the hotel, Weinstein would undress and masturbate in front of the women. Siebel Newsom and Jane Doe 1, a model, both testified Weinstein penetrated them with his “deformed” penis.
“In a word, he was powerful, and he held that power to prey on women, to silence women,” Martinez said. “He used that power without the consequences of his predatory behavior. … He believed he was so powerful. For many years that’s what he did. The truth is, many people knew but never did anything.”
Defense attorney Alan Jackson, however, told jurors during his closing argument that prosecutors did not provide any evidence to prove Weinstein had committed the charges related to the four Jane Does. He added the other four “prior bad acts” witnesses were just “excuses to pile on” Weinstein.
Jackson had said the alleged rape of Jane Doe 1 and Jane Doe 2 “simply never happened,” while Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe 4 had “transactional sex” with Weinstein and continued a relationship with him because it benefitted their careers to be associated with the then powerful Hollywood producer.
“‘Take my word for it’— five words that sum up the entirety of the prosecution’s case,” Jackson said. “They were untruthful with you, without exception. Jane Doe 1, 2, 3, 4 all told you lies. … “Fury does not make facts, and tears do not make truth.”
In his 2020 New York trial, jurors took five days to deliberate. before finding Weinstein guilty of rape and criminal sexual assault. However, he was acquitted of the two most serious charges against him — both counts of predatory sexual assault.
The accusations in Weinstein’s New York case set into motion the #MeToo movement, exposing predatory practices with the Hollywood “casting couch” culture and other industries.
Weinstein now faces between 18 and 24 years in prison on the Los Angeles charges and will be sentenced in the new year.
A spokesperson for Weinstein said that he was “obviously disappointed in the verdict.”
“He knows what happened and what never did. However, the accounts of Jane Doe 1 have a strong likelihood of an appeal with positive results, as the logistics of the time and location of the alleged incident make no sense,”
“Harvey is grateful for the jury’s work on the other counts, and he’s determined to continue to fight his legal challenges.”
