Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of one count of rape by a Los Angeles jury.
Key points:
- Weinstein pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape and five of other sexual assault
- Jurors deliberated for nine days on the month-long trial
- Weinstein still faces more than 20 years on a New York sentence
Jurors deliberated for nine days over a span of more than two weeks after a month-long trial that detailed allegations against the 70-year-old former movie mogul.
Weinstein was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and another sexual misconduct count involving a woman known as Jane Doe 1.
The jury was hung on several counts, notably charges involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The jury reported it was unable to reach verdicts on counts related to her allegations and the allegations of another woman. A mistrial was declared on those counts.
He was also acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by another woman.
He faces up to 24 years in prison when he is sentenced, though is already serving a sentence for crimes committed in the state of New York. Prosecutors and defence attorneys had no immediate comment on the verdict.
Weinstein plans to appeal the verdict.
Time for 'reign of terror' to end
"It is time for the defendant's reign of terror to end," Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez said in the prosecution's closing argument.
"It is time for the kingmaker to be brought to justice."
With no forensic evidence or eyewitness accounts of the assaults Weinstein's accusers said happened from 2005 to 2013, the case hinged heavily on the stories and credibility of the four women at the centre of the charges.
The accusers included Ms Newsom, a documentary filmmaker whose husband is California's Governor.
Her intense and emotional testimony of being raped by Weinstein in a hotel room in 2005 brought the trial its most dramatic moments.
Another complainant was an Italian model and actor who said Weinstein appeared uninvited at her hotel room door during a 2013 film festival and raped her.
Lauren Young, the only accuser who testified at both Weinstein trials, said she was a model aspiring to be an actor and screenwriter who was meeting with Weinstein about a script in 2013 when he trapped her in a hotel bathroom, groped her and masturbated in front of her.
The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charges involving Ms Young.
A massage therapist testified Weinstein did the same to her after getting a massage in 2010.
Ms Martinez said in her closing that the women entered Weinstein's hotel suites or let him into their rooms with no idea of what awaited them.
"Who would suspect that such an entertainment industry titan would be a degenerate rapist?" she said.
The women's stories echoed the allegations of dozens of others who have emerged since Weinstein became a #MeToo lightning rod, starting with stories in the New York Times in 2017.
A movie about that reporting, titled "She Said", was released during the trial and jurors were repeatedly warned not to see it, with the defence emphasising none of the four women went to the authorities until after the movement made Weinstein a target.
Defence lawyers said two of the women were entirely lying about their encounters with Weinstein, and that the other two had "100 per cent consensual" sexual interactions that they later reframed.
"Regret is not the same thing as rape," Weinstein's attorney Alan Jackson said in his closing argument.
He urged jurors to look past the the women's emotional testimony and focus on the factual evidence.
"Well, fury does not make fact. And tears do not make truth," Mr Jackson said.
Prosecutors called 40 other witnesses in an attempt to give context and corroboration to those stories.
Four were other women who were not part of the charges testified that Weinstein raped or sexually assaulted them. They were brought to the stand to establish a pattern of sexual predation.
Weinstein beat four other felony charges before the trial even ended when prosecutors said a woman he was charged with raping twice and sexually assaulting twice would not appear to testify. They declined to give a reason, Judge Lisa Lench dismissed those charges.
Weinstein's New York conviction survived an initial appeal, but the case is set to be heard by the state's highest court next year.
The California conviction means he will not walk free even if the East Coast conviction is thrown out.
AP
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2022-12-19 23:53:34Z
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