Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein—once revered as one of Hollywood’s most influential power brokers—was tossed in jail Monday after a jury found him guilty of two of the five counts against him at his watershed sexual-assault trial in Manhattan.
After over five days of deliberation, jurors in Manhattan Supreme Court convicted Weinstein, 67, of first-degree criminal sex act for the assault of former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haleyi inside his SoHo apartment in 2006 and third-degree rape for the assault of former actress Jessica Mann. He was cleared of first-degree rape and the most serious charge against him, predatory sexual assault, which would have carried with it the possibility of life in prison.
“Harvey Weinstein has finally been held accountable for crimes he has committed,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. told reporters. “The women who came forward courageously and at great risk made that happen. Weinstein is a vicious, serial sexual predator who used his power to threaten, rape, assault, trick, humiliate, and silence his victims.”
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As the verdict was read to the packed courtroom, the toppled titan sat emotionless, staring straight ahead.
Weinstein—leaving behind the walker that’s helped him shuffle into court each day—was then handcuffed and taken into custody by two court officers after Judge James Burke ordered him remanded until his sentencing on March 11. He faces a minimum of five years and up to 25 years in prison.
It was the first time Weinstein was held without a bail package, and the judge said he would make a request for the former Miramax chief to be placed in the facility’s infirmary while he is in custody.
Weinstein left the courthouse in an ambulance that took him to the city’s Rikers Island jail complex.
“The court thanks each and every one of you for your dedicated service. Thank you for your care and concentration,” Burke told jurors.
Afterward, Weinstein defense lawyer Arthur Aidala told reporters: “As sure as I’m a bald man, we will be appealing.”
“Harvey is unbelievably strong. He took it like a man,” defense attorney Donna Rotunno, who’s previously made controversial comments about his case, added.
As jurors were escorted from the courthouse and whisked away in a white van, jury foreman Bernard Cody told reporters that he was personally devastated by the verdict.
“It was devastating. I’ll talk later,” he said, refusing to elaborate.
Another juror told The Daily Beast that Monday's court proceedings were “very stressful and emotional.” “The last day, today, was particularly hard. I don't have much I want to say about the details about our deliberations but I am just happy it is over,” the juror added hours after the verdict was reached.
The verdict comes more than two years after bombshell reports in The New York Times and The New Yorker exposed a slew of sexual-misconduct allegations against Weinstein, launching the global #MeToo movement and inspiring hundreds of women to share their own accounts of harassment and assault at the hands of powerful men in politics, media, and the entertainment industry.
More than 80 women have since come forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual harassment and rape. Several of them lauded the verdict on Monday.
“For the women who testified in this case, and walked through traumatic hell, you did a public service to girls and women everywhere, thank you,” actress Ashley Judd, who’s accused Weinstein of sexual harassment, tweeted.
Throughout his four-week trial, prosecutors argued the Pulp Fiction producer used his power and prestige in the entertainment industry to prey on women for over three decades, promising to kickstart their careers in exchange for sex acts.
“The universe is run by [Weinstein] so, therefore, they don’t get to complain when they’re stepped on, spit on, demoralized, and then, yes, raped and abused,” Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said during her closing arguments. “He made sure he can contact the people he was worried about as a little check to make sure one day they wouldn’t walk out in the shadows and call him what he was: an abusive rapist.”
Jurors heard from six of Weinstein’s accusers at trial—with most of them claiming the Oscar-winner lured them into isolated places to discuss their futures in the entertainment industry before sexually assaulting them.
The women admitted they never told the authorities about the abuse out of embarrassment and fear that Weinstein would ruin their chances of making it in Hollywood.
“I decided that going to the police was not an option for me,” Haleyi testified in January. “Also, Harvey has a lot more power and resources, and I really didn’t think I would stand a chance.”
Weinstein’s defense, however, maintained he only had consensual sexual relationships with the women who testified against him—insisting that the film titan was too busy to “develop some grand plan to meet women” and was actually the one being used by aspiring actresses for career gain.
Rotunno argued prosecutors created an “alternate universe” that stripped “adult women of common sense, autonomy, and responsibility” and urged jurors to disregard their “gut feelings” about the producer.
“You don’t have to like Mr. Weinstein, this is not a popularity contest,” Rotunno insisted. “In this country, it is the unpopular person that needs a jury the most.”
At trial, Haleyi, a 42-year-old former Project Runway production assistant, emotionally recounted to jurors how Weinstein allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006 at his SoHo home—where she thought they were going to discuss business opportunities. Weeks later, she said she had unwanted sex with Weinstein in a Tribeca hotel room.
“The first incident was deeply embarrassing, but I didn’t blame myself. The second time, I hadn’t struggled enough and just endured it,” said Haleyi, 42. “I just gave up.”
As she sought to pick apart the defense’s argument that the London-born Haleyi was using Weinstein for career opportunities that would allow her to remain in the United States, Illuzzi stressed that a woman should be able to go “unescorted to a man’s apartment and not suffer sexual assault.”
“She wasn’t going to Harvey Weinstein’s apartment to have sex with Harvey Weinstein. She was going to Harvey Weinstein’s apartment to be polite and professional,” the prosecutor said. “Is that consent? Is that consent to have sex? There are no blurred lines here, this is a crime.”
Mann, a 34-year-old former actress, also took the stand and testified that Weinstein assaulted her multiple times during their twisted relationship—including allegedly raping her in a DoubleTree Hotel room in March 2013 and attacking her again months later at a Beverly Hills hotel.
“I was panicked because my worst nightmare was about to happen,” she said through tears, describing the moments before the alleged assault in New York City. “I was very angry inside and very scared. I gave up at that point.”
Born on a dairy farm in Washington state and raised in the evangelical faith, Mann garnered audible gasps in the courtroom as she described her “extremely degrading” relationship with Weinstein—at one point describing his body as “deformed” with “extreme scarring.” She also said he injected himself with “medicine” to maintain an erection.
In an attempt to discredit her account, Weinstein’s defense showed jurors numerous friendly emails Mann sent to the producer after the alleged assaults.
“The question for you is not whether Jessica Mann made a bad decision, the question for you is whether Jessica Mann is lying about it if she’s telling you the truth—that she was raped,” Illuzzi countered.
In addition to Mann and Haleyi, jurors have also heard from four corroborating witnesses whose allegations fall outside the statute of limitations: Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein violently raped her in her apartment in 1993 or 1994; Dawn Dunning, who said Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2004; Tarale Wulff, who was allegedly assaulted by the producer a year later; and Lauren Young, who was allegedly assaulted in Weinstein’s Beverly Hills hotel room days before the 2013 Oscars.
During deliberations, jurors were asked to weigh Sciorra’s testimony as an aggravating factor to support two counts of predatory sexual assault, of which he was ultimately cleared.
Weinstein’s legal battle, however, doesn’t end with Monday’s conviction. The movie mogul also faces four sex-crime charges in Los Angeles for allegedly raping one woman and sexually assaulting another over a two-day period in 2013.
“We are definitely proceeding,” LA Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson told New Yorker reporter Ronan Farrow.
