Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of second rape offense (22-23)

Harvey Weinstein found guilty of second rape offense A Los Angeles jury has found former Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein guilty of raping a woman.

The two-month trial showed how Weinstein used his influence to persuade women before assaulting them. The 70-year-old Oscar winners could face up to 24 years in prison if convicted.

He is already serving 23 years in prison after being found guilty of rape and sexual assault at his first trial in New York two years ago. Weinstein was found guilty on Monday of rape and two sexual assault charges, including the accuser, Jane Doe 1, in order to protect her anonymity.

The jury could not reach a verdict on the charges against Jennifer Seibel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the woman named Jane Doe 2. A mistrial was declared in those cases. He was also acquitted of sexual battery against the accuser known as Jane Doe 3.

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of second rape offense

The Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction producer and co-founder of entertainment company Miramax were dressed in a gray suit and looked pale in court in Los Angeles on Monday. He was not using a wheelchair as he had done in previous court appearances. When he heard guilty on count one, the former Hollywood producer looked down. Then the clerk of the court read guilty on count two and he looked at his attorney. At one point he looked at the jury.

The trial heard from dozens of witnesses in often emotional testimony over four weeks. But Monday’s ruling focused on allegations by four women stemming from 2005-13. The jury of eight men and four women spent nine days deliberating on three charges of rape and four other counts of sexual attack

The woman Weinstein was convicted of rape on Monday, Jane Doe 1, was a Russian-born model. The trial’s first witness, she testified that she was in Los Angeles in February 2013 for an Italian film festival when producers showed up to her Beverly Hills hotel room uninvited and raped her.

Harvey Weinstein destroyed a part of me forever that night in 2013 and I will never get that back, she said after the verdict. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell as a witness. Granted, but I knew I had to see it through to the end, and I did.

“I hope Weinstein never sees outside a prison cell in his lifetime.” Ms Seibel Newsom gave emotional testimony that she was a documentary filmmaker when Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in 2005.

During the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexist, anti-feminist and intimidation tactics to intimidate, mock and ridicule us, the First Lady of California said in a statement Monday after the verdict. The trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have things to do.

Lauren Young was the only one of the four main accused to publicly identify herself. She said she was a model and aspiring actress and screenwriter when she met Weinstein in 2013 about a script. Ms. Young said he trapped her in a hotel bathroom and sexually assaulted her.

The jury was unable to reach a verdict on the charges relating to him. Jane Doe 3, a massage therapist, testified that Weinstein trapped and sexually assaulted her in a hotel bathroom in 2010. He was cleared of that attack. His sentencing in New York in 2020 was a landmark moment for the #MeToo movement, which has been calling out widespread sexual abuse and harassment in the film industry for many years.

Weinstein is currently appealing the New York conviction. More than 80 women have come forward with allegations of sexual assault and misconduct against Weinstein over several decades.

How the Weinstein scandal unfolded

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