Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, nearly three years after the already convicted movie mogul was sentenced for similar crimes in New York City.
The disgraced Hollywood mogul, 70, was acquitted of one count of sexual battery, but the jury is still hung on three other counts against him.
The case, brought by four women, contained five sexual assault charges for incidents that transpired in LA county between 2004 and 2013, including two counts of forcible rape.
Bound in a wheelchair for the proceedings, Weinstein had already been found guilty in February 2020 of two felonies — third-degree rape and criminal sexual act in the first degree.
Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, nearly three years after the already convicted movie mogul was sentenced for similar crimes in New York City
Other allegations leveled against the producer – who until recently had been touted as ‘The Most Powerful Man in Hollywood’ – include forcible oral copulation, sexual battery by restraint, and sexual penetration by use of force, all allegedly carried out between 2004 and 2013.
His four accusers – which include multiple then-aspiring models and a masseuse employed by Weinstein – all delivered emotional testimonies recounting their alleged abuse over the past month. Among them was the wife of current California Governor Gavin Newsom, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who argues Weinstein raped her during an encounter in 2005.
Earlier in the month, prosecutors revealed that the accuser known in court as Jane Doe 5, who alleged she was raped and forced to give oral sex to the then movie mogul on two separate occasions in 2009 and 2010, would not be appearing to testify.
One of the four accusers, 29-year-old- known as Jane Doe 2 in court. An aspiring model looking into acting and screenwriting when she was allegedly assaulted by Weinstein, Young alleges that during a 2013 meeting about a script, the mogul groped and masturbated in front of her
‘I was scared of Harvey Weinstein – that he would hurt me, or send someone to hurt me, or ruin my career, or make my life hell,’ Young said during an emotional testimony earlier in the month
What’s more, the attorneys revealed that the counts would no longer be pursued, and would not detail a reason for the last-minute shift.
Those remaining include a currently unidtentied Russian-born, Italy-based model and actress, labeled Jane Doe 1, who claims she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein in 2013, and forced to perform oral sex as he had difficulty maintaining an erection.
The first witness called to the stand, Jane Doe 1 faced a heated line of questioning from Weinstein’s legal team back in October, with the defense accusing her of lying – arguing that at the time of the alleged incident, Weinstein’s testicles had been surgically relocated to his inner thighs.
‘I was trying to do what he wanted,’ the unidentified accuser said, conceding that Weinstein had ‘problems with testicles’ while remaining adamant she never changed her story about the assault.
A third accuser, an licensed massage therapist known only as Jane Doe 3, was hired by hired by Weinstein in May of 2010 for a massage, during which she said Weinstein trapped her, groped her, and masturbated in front of her, in an incident very similar to the one recounted by Young
Another supposed inconsistency cited by attorneys in the first Jane Doe’s account was a 2017 interview the model did with authorities as the #MeToo movement started to catch fire, when she said she had Weinstein’s testicles in her mouth.
Lawyers claimed the surgery of testicles would make it difficult for her to allegedly comply with Weinstein’s demand ‘to play with his balls’ and amounted this to a discrepancy in the woman’s testimony.
The model, meanwhile, asserted that she had ‘described that he had a problem,’ and simply did not specify which part of the body that problem lied during an earlier line of questioning because she was not asked to do so by a grand jury.
‘In the grand jury they don’t let you talk, only answer question,’ the foreign woman said at the time.
Perhaps the most prominent accusers is Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who claims Weinstein sexually assaulted her during a 2005 business meeting – telling her ‘relax, this is going to make her feel better’
Screaming through tears at times during her impassioned testimony, the 48-year-old wife of California’s more prominent politician left onlookers stunned upon airing her accusations in court for the first time, during which she was also accused of lying by Weinstein’s defense
According to the accuser, that attack took place in Los Angeles for an Italian film festival, during which Weinstein arrived uninvited at her hotel room in February 2013 and raped her. The attack led to mental anguish and abuse of alcohol, she said, and also saw Weinstein allegedly penetrate her with a foreign object.
‘I was destroying myself,’ she testified early on during proceeding, while fighting back tears. ‘I was feeling very guilty. Most of all because I opened that door.’
She added that she has been the victim of rape in the past and feared being beat if she didn’t follow Weinstein’s demands for sex.
Next to testify against the producer was 29-year-old model Lauren Young – known as Jane Doe 2 in court – who is the only of the four accusers to tell her story at both trials, in Los Angeles and New York.
An aspiring model looking into acting and screenwriting when she was allegedly assaulted by Weinstein, Young alleges that during a 2013 meeting with the mogul about a script, he trapped her in the bathroom of his Beverly Hills hotel, groped her, and masturbated in front of her while she stood and watched. According to the accuser’s testimony, the attack transpired after the alleged 2013 rape of Jane Doe 1.
Harvey Weinstein was a ‘predator’ with unmistakable patterns who used his Hollywood power to lure women into meetings, sexually assault them and escape the consequences, a prosecutor said in closing arguments at the former movie mogul’s LA trial this week. A guilty verdict would see a sentence Weinstein is serving in New York extended by at least six decades
‘I was scared of Harvey Weinstein – that he would hurt me, or send someone to hurt me, or ruin my career, or make my life hell,’ Young said during an emotional testimony earlier in the month.
Weinstein’s attorneys, meanwhile, denied the encounter ever occurred, and said there was no evidence she was forced to remain in the room.
A third accuser, an licensed massage therapist known only as Jane Doe 3, was hired by hired by Weinstein in May of 2010 for a massage, during which she said Weinstein trapped her in a hotel bathroom, groped her, and masturbated in front of her, in an incident eerily similar to the one recounted by Young.
Tearing up at the stand, the masseuse said she was ‘young and naive’ when she fell victim to Weinstein’s alleged abuse, and felt like she couldn’t confide the odreal to her authorities or her fiancé – but eventually told one of her other A-List clients, Mel Gibson, about the incident, after he indicated he’d be working with Weinstein.
She expressed shame and disgust that she agreed to see and work on Weinstein again afterward, something the defense attempted to hone in on during cross-examinations.
‘That´s one of the reasons why I didn´t want to come forward,” she said, “because this is embarrassing,’ she told the court in defiance of the defense’s claims concerning supposed inconsistencies.
‘He went toward me in a very aggressive manner. He pushed me against the wall. That’s when he started to put his hand under my bra and feel my chest.’
She added: ‘I was terrified, I thought I was about to get raped.’
Perhaps the most prominent of the four accusers, however, is Newsom, known as Jane Doe 4 in court, who gave an intensely harrowing account of what she described as a rape by Weinstein at a Beverly Hills hotel in September 2005, where she had been supposed meet with producer about her aspiring acting career.
Screaming through tears at times during her impassioned testimony, the 48-year-old left onlookers stunned upon airing her accusations in court for the first time, during which she was also accused of lying by Weinstein’s defense.
When asked if it was her intent to ‘have sexual intercourse with Harvey Weinstein,’ the wife of the most powerful politician in the state shouted ‘no’ at prosecutors, and sobbed on the stand.
‘He knows this is not normal!’ she shouted during her account of the assault. ‘He knows this is not consent!’
In addition to those four accusers – who accounts to police saw a then under trial Weinstein extradited from New York to Los Angeles in the summer of 2021 – jurors also heard testimonies from more than 50 witnesses to gain insight on the four women’s allegations.
He has been held in DTLA’s Twin Towers Correctional Facility ever since.
Weinstein’s trial in The City of Angels comes more than five years after reports in both The New York Times and The New Yorker about his misdeeds surfaced, helping to spark the #MeToo movement.
The case has seen five new sexual assault charges and two of rape leveled against the now wheelchair bound convict for alleged incidents that transpired in LA between 2004 and 2013. The allegations were brought by four women all referred to as Jane Doe in court documents
Within weeks, nearly 90 women had come forward accusing Weinstein of sexual misconduct in incidents dating back to the 70s, with many alleging they had been raped by the former mogul.
As it stands, Weinstein has been publicly accused by more than 100 women. He has been incarcerated since February 2020,
Looking at 60 years to life plus five if found guilty, Weinstein and his team have argued the allegations are either fabricated or occurred consensually.
Aside from pointing out inconsistencies in accusers’ stories, his team has focused on the fact that there is no physical evidence of any of the women’s allegations, with nothing aside from their and other witness testimonies connecting him to the alleged incidents.
Jurors are expected to deliver a verdict in the coming days.
