Harvey Weinstein Convicted on Charges of Rape, Sexual Assault

Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual assault but acquitted of three other charges.

The verdict from a New York City jury was announced Monday morning after a six-week trial and five days of deliberation, NBC News reports.

The jury found Weinstein guilty of rape in the third degree against actress Jessica Mann and a criminal sexual act in the first degree against Mimi Haley, who had worked as a production assistant. He has been jailed pending sentencing, which will take place March 11. The third-degree rape charge carries a sentence of up to four years in prison, while the first-degree criminal sexual act charge can bring a sentence of five to 25 years.

He was acquitted, however, of the most serious charges, two counts of predatory sexual assault. Those could have resulted in life imprisonment. He was also acquitted of a charge of third-degree rape of Mann.

The trial was seen as a signature moment of the #MeToo movement. Allegations that the Oscar-winning producer sexually assaulted scores of women first emerged in 2017 in stories in The New Yorker and The New York Times. More than 80 women in total have accused him of assault and harassment. One of them, actress Rose McGowan, the former partner of nonbinary model Rain Dove, said upon Weinstein's arrest in 2018, "I have a visceral need for him to have handcuffs on."

The accusations by Haley and Mann were the focus of the trial. Mann "gave horrific testimony about how Weinstein forced oral sex on her, raped her, and then manipulated her into a degrading relationship, which she said included him wanting to film her having sex, urinating on her, and asking if she liked his 'big Jewish dick,'" BuzzFeed News reports. Haley said she felt like an "idiot" after having been raped twice by Weinstein. The trial also included testimony by others, such as actress Annabella Sciorra, who said she was raped by Weinstein.

Weinstein, 67, has denied ever engaging in nonconsensual sex, and he pleaded not guilty in the New York trial. He faces another trial, however, in Los Angeles, on charges of raping one woman and assaulting another in 2013. He has not entered a plea in the L.A. case.

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