Jury Delivers Split Verdict in Harvey Weinstein Retrial

Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday of one of the top charges in his sex crimes retrial but acquitted of another, and jurors are as yet unable to reach a verdict on a third charge.

• Weinstein was unanimously found guilty of sexually assaulting Miriam Haley in 2006, but not guilty of sexually assaulting Kaja Sokola the same year, the Guardian reports.
• Jurors are to continue deliberating on a charge that he raped Jessica Mann in 2013. Under New York law, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the first-degree criminal sex act offense he was convicted of. The New York Times reports they will continue their deliberations on Thursday.

• The split verdict from the jury of seven women and five men meted out a measure of vindication to his accusers and prosecutors—but also to Weinstein, the AP reports. Weinstein's initial conviction five years ago seemed to cement the downfall of one of Hollywood's most powerful men in a pivotal moment for the #MeToo movement. But that conviction was overturned last year, and the case was sent back for retrial in the same Manhattan courthouse. Weinstein, 73, denies sexually assaulting or raping anyone.
• The verdict came after drama in the jury room on Monday, and more on Wednesday. While the jury was in court to hear the answer to an earlier request to re-hear the text of a rape law, the foreperson signaled to Judge Curtis Farber that he wanted to talk." He, the judge, prosecutors, and Weinstein's lawyers then went behind closed doors. The discussion was closed to the press and public, but Farber later said the foreperson had expressed that he didn't want to change his position—whatever it may be—and was being bullied.
• Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala said the foreperson felt threatened and asked for a mistrial. Prosecutor Matthew Colangelo, however, said the foreperson hadn't seemed afraid or apprehensive, just "stubborn." "He said he'd made up his mind, he didn't want to change it, and people were pressuring him to change it. That's what jury deliberations involve," the prosecutor said.
• The AP adds the partial verdict came after Weinstein himself urged the judge to halt the trial. "My life is on the line, and you know what? It's not fair," the former Hollywood heavy-hitter declared after making an unusual request to address the court. "It's time, it's time, it's time, it's time to say this trial is over." He spoke before learning there was a verdict on any of the charges.

(More Harvey Weinstein stories.)