After three days of deliberations, jurors in the Harvey Weinstein retrial signaled Monday that they were struggling with issues both legal and interpersonal, reporting infighting and the consideration of improper evidence that prompted the disgraced movie mogul’s defense attorneys to renew calls for a mistrial.
Judge Curtis Farber denied the request after meeting with the foreperson behind closed doors and re-reading instructions for the panel not to consider witness accusations that were not part of the three charged crimes Weinstein faces in the Manhattan case, the Associated Press reported Monday.
The foreperson told the judge that some jurors were ganging up on others and pushing them to change their minds based on information that was not presented in court – the very issue that triggered the retrial after an appeals court ruled in Weinstein’s favor last year.
“They fight together and I don’t like it,” the foreperson said after telling the judge in a note that the situation “wasn’t very good,” according to a transcript of the robe-room meeting obtained by the AP. The foreperson told Farber that he had decided, “and I don’t want to change my mind.”
One juror said he had heard jurors discussing another juror in courtroom elevators, and asked to be excused because “in good conscience, I don’t think this is fair and just,” THR reported.
Defense attorney Arthur Aidala, who has called multiple times for a mistrial, called the jury “tainted” and “runaway” in his renewed request. “People are considering things that were not brought into this trial as evidence … [jurors] are pushing people to change their minds. It’s not fair. They are talking about the past. It’s not about the past.”
Farber was unmoved, instead reminding jurors to only consider evidence presented at trial and fulfilling their request to re-read the definition of reasonable doubt and guidelines around avoiding a hung jury. Another juror stayed behind after the meeting, saying “things are going well today” and suggesting that they were making better progress Monday.
The panel of seven women and five men began deliberating Weinstein’s fate on Wednesday. The jury will decide whether Weinstein raped one woman in 2006 and sexually assaulted two others that same year, all of whom testified. He faces a maximum sentence of 25 years.
The 2020 jury took five days of deliberations to reach a verdict. Throughout all three trials, Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing, saying the sex with aspiring actresses amounted to cheating on his wife, but that he never assaulted anyone.
Weinstein is also convicted in California, where his case is under appeal.
