Harvey Weinstein gets mistrial for rape charge after jury foreperson says he felt bullied
The criminal court judge overseeing Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault retrial in New York declared a mistrial on Thursday over the movie mogul's remaining rape charge after the jury foreperson expressed concerns over ongoing deliberations.
Deliberations ended Thursday — in an anticlimactic conclusion to the weeks-long retrial — a day after a majority-female jury convicted Weinstein of one 2006 sexual assault but acquitted him on another from the same year. On Wednesday, the Oscar-winning 'Shakespeare in Love' producer, 73, was found guilty of forcing oral sex on former Weinstein Co. production assistant Mimi Haley and acquitted of the same regarding former model Kaja Sokola. At the time, the jury was hung on a third charge of Weinstein raping once-aspiring actor Jessica Mann in 2013.
Weinstein was retried five years after he was convicted in February 2020 of rape and a felony sex crime connected to individual allegations from accusers Mann and Haley, respectively. He was acquitted at the time on two charges of predatory sexual assault. A month later, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
After handing down the partial verdict on Wednesday, the majority-female jury was set to continue deliberations Thursday on the the rape charge. Judge Curtis Farber on Wednesday informed the jury foreperson, who complained earlier this week that he felt bullied, that he won't have to go into the jury room if he doesn't want to. The foreperson told prosecutors, defense lawyers and Farber in a closed-door discussion on Wednesday that another juror yelled at him for standing by his opinion and at one point vowed, 'You going to see me outside.'
The foreperson told the judge and attorneys, 'I feel afraid inside there,' according to a transcript.
He added Thursday that he would not return to the jury room. 'No, I'm sorry,' he responded when asked.
Farber declared a mistrial weeks after rejecting a Weinstein attorney's request for a mistrial stemming from courtroom tensions with Mann. The hairstylist, who testified that she met Weinstein in the 2010s after moving to Los Angeles, is willing to go to trial a third time, Manhattan prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said Thursday.
A new trial date has yet to be revealed.
Weinstein's retrial began April 23 and featured emotional testimony from Haley and Mann, who returned to the stand, plus Sokola, who did not testify against the mogul in the 2020 trial. The disgraced Hollywood boss was tried on the allegations that led to his original rape and felony sex act conviction, plus a new sexual assault charge stemming from Sokola's allegation that he forced oral sex on her in 2006 when she was 19. Weinstein pleaded not guilty and his defense maintained the alleged sexual encounters were consensual.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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