Jury finds Harvey Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault during Los Angeles trial

20 December, 2022

Content warning: this article discusses rape and sexual assault.

A Los Angeles jury has convicted Harvey Weinstein on three counts of rape and sexual assault against one woman, while remaining divided on allegations relating to three other accusers.

The verdict was reached after more than nine days of deliberation during Weinstein’s month-long trial, which detailed multiple allegations of sexual assault against the disgraced producer within the state of California. Jurors convicted Weinstein of the rape and sexual assault of one woman, a European model and actor who was referred to anonymously as ‘Jane Doe 1’.

The jury was divided on three other charges of rape and sexual assault made by two seperate accusers – one of whom was Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom – and acquitted Weinstein of another sexual battery allegation made by a fourth woman. A mistrial was declared on those counts for which the jury couldn’t reach a verdict. Prior to the conviction, Weinstein had pleaded not guilty to all seven of the charges against him.

The charges relating to ‘Jane Doe 1’ stem from the 2013 assault of a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel room. As reported by CNN, Jane Doe 1 said in a statement via her attorney that Weinstein “forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013.” She continued: “I knew I had to see this through the end, and I did… I hope Harvey Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”

Meanwhile, Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said in a statement that the disgraced producer “is obviously disappointed” by the conviction, but that there remains “good ground to appeal based on time and location of alleged events”. Engelmayer continued: “[Weinstein] is grateful the jury took their time to deliberate on the other counts and he is prepared to continue fighting for his innocence.”

Weinstein faces up to 24 years in prison when sentenced on the convicted counts of rape and sexual assault. That sentence is on top of the 23-year sentence Weinstein is already serving for similar crimes in New York, following the producer’s rape conviction within that state in 2020. While that New York jury found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape, they likewise acquitted him of additional charges relating to predatory sexual assault.

According to ABC, Weinstein plans to appeal the Los Angeles verdict, on top of the current appeal of his conviction in New York. The allegations against Weinstein, which began surfacing in major publications in 2017, are credited with galvanising the #MeToo movement, which saw scores of women come forward with allegations of sexual assault and harassment within the entertainment industry and beyond.

The reports which spurred the movement are the subject of the film She Said, which jurors were instructed not watch amid its release during the Los Angeles trial.