Jury deliberations start in Harvey Weinstein's intercourse crimes retrial

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NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors started deliberating Thursday in Harvey Weinstein ’s New York intercourse crimes retrial, however ended the day and not using a verdict in a case that encapsulated the #MeToo motion.

The seven-woman, five-man jury is contemplating two counts of legal intercourse act and one depend of rape, every regarding a distinct accuser and a distinct date. On this case, the legal intercourse act cost is the higher-degree felony. Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not responsible.

The panel bought the case Thursday morning after one juror who couldn’t come to courtroom as a consequence of sickness was changed by an alternate. Earlier than wrapping for the day, the jurors despatched notes to the decide requesting to listen to a readback of some testimony from two of Weinstein’s accusers, in addition to to see medical data from a type of girls.

Almost eight years in the past, a sequence of sexual misconduct allegations towards the Oscar-winning film producer propelled the #MeToo motion. A few of these accusations later generated legal prices and convictions in New York and California.

The New York conviction from 2020 was subsequently overturned, resulting in the retrial earlier than a brand new jury and a distinct decide.

Jurors heard greater than 5 weeks of testimony, together with prolonged and typically fiery questioning of Weinstein’s three accusers within the case.

Jessica Mann stated he raped her in 2013, when she was making an attempt to construct an appearing profession. Miriam Haley accused him of forcibly performing oral intercourse on her in 2006, when she was searching for work in leisure manufacturing.

Kaja Sokola, who wasn’t concerned in Weinstein’s first trial, advised jurors that he pressured oral intercourse on her, too, throughout 2006. On the time, she was a teenage vogue mannequin making an attempt to interrupt into appearing.

“They all had dreams of pursuing careers in the defendant’s world, the entertainment industry,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg advised jurors in her closing argument Tuesday. She contended that Weinstein let the ladies suppose he was excited by their careers when what truly him have been their our bodies, and “he was going to have their our bodies and contact their our bodies whether or not they needed him to or not.”

Weinstein selected to not testify. His protection referred to as different witnesses, together with some former pals of Sokola’s and Mann’s.

Weinstein’s attorneys argued that each one three accusers consented to Weinstein’s advances as a result of they needed assist with their Hollywood goals. All three stayed on pleasant phrases with him afterward, a degree the protection emphasised.

“It’s transactional, folks. Yes, he wants to fool around with them, and yes, they want something from him,” protection lawyer Arthur Aidala stated in his summation Tuesday.

The Related Press typically doesn’t establish individuals with out their permission if they are saying they’ve been sexually assaulted. Sokola, Mann and Haley have agreed to be named.

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