The Reporter (Lansdale, PA)

Weinstein guilty in landmark #MeToo moment

- By Michael R. Sisak and Tom Hays

Harvey Weinstein was convicted Monday of rape and sexual assault against two women and was immediatel­y led off to jail in handcuffs, sealing his dizzying fall from powerful Hollywood studio boss to archvillai­n of the #MeToo movement.

The 67-year-old Weinstein had a look of resignatio­n on his face as he heard the verdict that could send him to prison for up to 29 years.

“This is the new landscape for survivors of sexual assault in America, I believe, and it is a new day. It is a new day because Harvey Weinstein has finally been held accountabl­e for crimes he committed,” District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said. “Weinstein is a vicious, serial sexual predator who used his power to threaten, rape, assault and trick, humiliate and silence his victims.”

Weinstein’s lawyers said they will appeal.

“Harvey is unbelievab­ly strong. He took it like a man,” defense attorney Donna Rotunno said. “He knows that we will continue to fight for him, and we know that this is not over.” Another of his lawyers, Arthur Aidala, quoted Weinstein as telling as his legal team:: “I’m innocent. I’m innocent. I’m innocent. How could this happen in America?”

The jury of seven men and five women took five days to find Weinstein guilty of raping an aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulting production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006 by forcibly performing oral sex on her.

He was acquitted on the most serious charges, two counts of predatory sexual assault, each carrying a sentence of up to life in prison. Both of those counts hinged on the word of “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein barged into her apartment, raped her and forcibly performed oral sex on her in the mid-1990s.

The sexual assault charge carries up to 25 years in prison, while the third-degree rape count is punishable by up to four years. Sentencing was set for March 11.

Judge James Burke ordered Weinstein taken to jail immediatel­y. Court officers surrounded Weinstein, handcuffed him and led him out of the courtroom via a side door without the use of the walker he relied on for much of the trial. The judge said he will ask that Weinstein, who had been free on bail since his arrest nearly two years ago, be held in the infirmary after his lawyers said he needs medical attention following unsuccessf­ul back surgery.

The verdict followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciati­ngly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbati­on, lewd propositio­ns and that’s-Hollywood excuses from Weinstein about how the casting couch works.

The conviction was seen as a long-overdue reckoning for Weinstein after years of whispers about his behavior turned into a torrent of accusation­s in 2017 that destroyed his career and gave rise to #MeToo, the global movement to encourage women to come forward and hold powerful men accountabl­e for their sexual misconduct.

In addition to the three women he was charged with attacking, three more who said they, too, were attacked by Weinstein testified as part of an effort by prosecutor­s to show a pattern of brutish behavior on his part.

“Weinstein with his manipulati­on, his resources, his attorneys, his publicists and his spies did everything he could to silence to survivors,” Vance said after the verdict. He saluted the women who came forward, saying they changed the court of history in the fight against sexual violence” and “pulled our justice system into the 21st century.”

The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sex crimes unless they grant permission, as Haleyi and Sciorra did.

The jury signaled its struggles with the Sciorra charges four days into deliberati­ons. On Friday, the jurors sent the judge a note indicating they were deadlocked on those counts but had reached a unanimous verdict on the others. The judge told them to keep on deliberati­ng.

In the case of the unidentifi­ed woman he was accused of raping, the jury acquitted Weinstein of firstdegre­e rape, which requires the use of force or the threat of it, and found him guilty of third-degree rape, which involves a lack of consent.

After the verdict, jury foreman Bernard Cody was asked as he left court how the deliberati­ons were for him personally and responded: “Devastatin­g.” He did not elaborate.

While Weinstein did not testify, his lawyers contended that any sexual contact was consensual and that his accusers went to bed with him to get ahead in Hollywood. The defense seized on the fact that the two women he was convicted of attacking stayed in contact with him through warm and even flirty emails — and had sex with him — well after he supposedly attacked them.

The hard-charging and phenomenal­ly successful movie executive helped bring to the screen such Oscar winners as “Good

Will Hunting,” “Pulp Fiction,” “The King’s Speech” and “Shakespear­e in Love” and nurtured the careers of celebrated filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith.

Weinstein now faces charges in Los Angeles. In that case, announced just as the New York trial was getting under way on Jan. 6, authoritie­s allege Weinstein raped one woman and sexually assaulted another on back-to-back nights during Oscars week in 2013.

The New York trial was the first criminal case to arise from a barrage of allegation­s against Weinstein from more than 90 women, including actresses Gwyneth Paltrow, Salma Hayek and Uma Thurman. Most of those cases were too old to prosecute.

 ?? MARY ALTAFFER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ?? Harvey Weinstein leaves the courthouse during jury deliberati­ons in his rape trial, Friday, Feb. 21, in New York.
MARY ALTAFFER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Harvey Weinstein leaves the courthouse during jury deliberati­ons in his rape trial, Friday, Feb. 21, in New York.

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