Weinstein won’t face L.A. retrial on rape and assault charges
Harvey Weinstein will not be retried in Los Angeles for the rape and sexual assault charges jurors failed to reach a verdict on last December, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench has dismissed those charges, which stemmed from claims by two of the four accusers included in the trial.
Weinstein was sentenced last month to 16 years in prison after jurors found him guilty on a rape charge and two counts of sexual assault involving an Italian model who claimed the disgraced ex-filmmaker attacked her in 2013. Those were the only charges Weinstein was convicted of in the L.A. trial.
The former movie producer had also faced rape and sexual assault charges involving an accusation by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California’s governor, as well as a sexual battery count related to claims made by model Lauren Young, but jurors couldn’t agree on verdicts.
Jurors also acquitted Weinstein of a sexual battery charge involving another woman. Four charges relating to a fifth accuser, previously identified as Jane Doe 5, were dropped during the trial. Actress Kate Jaggard identified herself Tuesday as Jane Doe 5.
Weinstein was already sentenced to 23 years behind bars in New York in 2020 following a conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. He will return to New York following Tuesday’s developments, Lench said.
Young expressed disappointment Tuesday that Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson declined to pursue a retrial on the charge involving her accusation.
“As you know, 10 members of the jury voted to convict the defendant on that charge, and two did not,” Young said in a statement. “I really wanted the prosecutor to retry the case, and I asked him to do that, because for 10 years I have done everything possible to seek justice.”
Jaggard also released a statement about the dismissed charges.
“Although I was willing to undergo cross-examination at trial, due to circumstances that were beyond my control, I was not able to appear for trial,” Jaggard said. “As a result, those charges were dismissed.”
The Flushing, Queens-born Weinstein, 70, co-founded with his brother the Miramax production studio, which distributed Oscar-winning films such as “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.” He became a focal point of the #MeToo movement in 2017 after dozens of women accused him of sexual misconduct.