Posted on 12/19/2022 3:57:12 PM PST by nickcarraway
Jurors have found Harvey Weinstein guilty of three out of seven counts he was facing in a Los Angeles sex-assault and rape case.
Weinstein was found guilty on counts of forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by foreign object and forcible rape. Jurors reached a not-guilty verdict on one count of sexual battery by restraint and were deadlocked on three additional counts.
The jury is expected to return to the courtroom Tuesday to hear arguments on special findings in the case.
The 70-year-old former movie mogul was on trial for two rape counts and five sexual assault counts. The charges involve accusations from four women spanning from 2005 to 2013. The jury heard from 49 witnesses in more than four weeks of testimony.
Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York and could have been sentenced to more than 60 years in prison in California if he had been convicted on all counts.
Jurors got the case Dec. 2 and deliberated for nine days over a span of more than two weeks, following a monthlong trial.
No matter the result, Weinstein won't be walking free. He still has more than 20 years left on a New York prison sentence after a rape and sexual assault conviction there.
Prosecutors urged jurors to believe the accounts of the four women, each of whom gave dramatic and emotional testimony about the allegations.
"You have irrefutable, overwhelming evidence of the nature of this man, and what he did to these women," Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson told the jurors in his rebuttal to the closing argument delivered by the defense a day earlier.
Prosecutor compares Weinstein to wolf, predator in closing arguments
EMBED <>MORE VIDEOS Jurors have started deliberating in the Los Angeles rape and sexual assault trial of Harvey Weinstein.
Weinstein's attorneys emphasized the shortage of physical evidence in the case, and asked jurors to set aside the emotional impact of the testimony to focus on the changes several of the women's stories had gone through in their conversations with authorities.
In his closing, Weinstein's defense attorney Alan Jackson emphasized the absence of physical evidence of the assaults, none of which were reported to authorities until years later.
He told jurors two of the accusers were clearly lying, and the other two had reframed "transactional" and "100% consensual" sexual acts with Weinstein as assaults after he became a magnet for the #MeToo movement in 2017.
"Regret is not rape," Jackson said.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty and denied engaging in any non-consensual sex.
The trial came just after the fifth anniversary of the blockbuster stories about Weinstein that made him a lightning rod for the #MeToo movement.
Just guessing here, but I’d wager none of the four women got the parts they thought they were “earning.”
The accusers are women.
Of course he is guilty.
We have reached a reverse of Islam, where a woman's testimony is more valuable than a man's.
I despise Weinstein, but he deserves due process, just like anyone else.
“He is a man. The accusers are women. Of course he is guilty.”
Not on any jury of mine, and probably the same with you - unless there are 4 men that attest to the crime, and are not DNC operatives.
Yes, it was and IS a question of who was hustling who on the day in question?
Statutes of limitation should not be extended for “lifetime” just because the allegations “sound”, decades later, horrible.
Weinstein is a PIG & always has been.
Hammer came down pretty hard on ol’ Harv-oh.
I have a daughter.
I taught her to be her own person.
This Harvey guy is scum, but unless he forcibly
sexually violated those women.
Their bad choices are not his crime.
That our society allows such people to have that kind of power, is what we need to correct.
However if we did that we would not have politicians, rich people, or Hollywood.
This is a sham trial that plays on the biases of the ignorant. Why are my tax dollars paying for this? Who is being protected? He is already in jail.
Just in: Amazon and Netflix are in a bidding war for streaming rights of Weinstein films.
Has HollyWierd stopped their standing ovation yet?
The rise of the “public hate figure” is driven by TV media for ratings and advertising dollars. TV media is most interested in the intellectually-unsophisticated, emotionally-driven viewers that make most of the family purchasing decisions: low-T estrogen-active couch potatoes. The ideal “public hate figure” is 1) rich, 2) a sex addict.
You might add: 3: white, and 4: A man.
Hillary’s good friend Harvey Weinstein, now convicted of rape. Just like Slick Willie, who should have been convicted.
Bird-of-a-feather Slick Willie had all the ingredients of also becoming a mainstream public hate figure except, at the time, being rich. Being a high-profile Demonrat greatly helps, but has its limits. Another difference, Harvey had a taste for beauty, while Slick Willie was totally fine with below average. Harvey maybe should have married a Hitlery lawyer type and lived happily ever after. It’s a tale of two hippies.
Oh they got the parts alright... Just not ‘movie’ parts.
I think Harvey’s MO was fairly known by the time of this trial. You can find lots and lots of men who would convict that rat in LA.
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