Harvey Weinstein was found guilty Monday of three felony counts including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and forcible penetration by a foreign object, but the Los Angeles jury was hung on three other counts – including allegations brought by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom — and found the disgraced movie mogul not guilty on the remaining charge.
Weinstein, dressed in a gray suit and tie, held his head in his hands as the first guilty verdict was read. The jury was expected back Tuesday to sort out aggravating factors that will affect sentencing, but the verdicts were officially entered and will stand, while a mistrial was declared for the three deadlocked counts.
Jurors heard 44 prosecution witnesses – and a handful for the defense – in the two-month trial that began Oct. 10 with jury selection. The panel of nine men and three women deliberated some 40 hours over 10 days, and came back Monday from a four-day weekend with a request for one bit of testimony that was read back to them first thing in the morning.
The jury, press and court observers were told just after 3 p.m. that a verdict had been reached, and began to assemble in the Los Angeles courtroom to which Weinstein had been shuttled back and forth each day of deliberations. Ultimately the jury convicted Weinstein on all three counts related to Jane Doe 1, a Russian model and actress – but none of the other accusers’ charged counts.
The jury was hung on allegations by Newsom, with a 8-4 vote in favor of conviction on each of two counts. In his opening statement, Weinstein’s lead attorney Mark Werksman had called Newsom a “bimbo” who was seeking career advancement by sleeping with the producer in 2005, years before she met her future husband, the then-mayor of San Francisco – and defense attorneys hammered on the fact that the emerging power couple solicited Weinstein for advice and political donations years after the alleged assault.
Newsom offered some of the most emotional and dramatic of the trial, with the former aspiring actress and documentary filmmaker breaking down and shouting through sobs on several occasions. When closing arguments came around, defense attorneys doubled down, telling the jury that all eight women who testified that Weinstein raped or assaulted them were either liars, or “fame and fortune seekers” who had “transactional sex” with Weinstein, then changed their stories as the #MeToo movement gained momentum.
“Harvey Weinstein will never be able to rape another woman,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement after the verdict. “He will spend the rest of his life behind bars where he belongs. Harvey Weinstein is a serial predator and what he did was rape. Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny, and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean, and ridicule us survivors. This trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do. To all survivors out there – I see you, I hear you, and I stand with you.”
Weinstein is already serving 23 years in a New York prison for criminal first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, a conviction he has been granted the right to appeal. He had faced an additional 60 years in a California prison had the jury convicted him on all seven counts, but with the split verdict, he now faces between 18 and 24 years, which are likely to be served concurrently with his existing sentence in New York state.
Monday’s split decision was reminiscent of Weinstein’s 2020 New York trial, where a jury found him guilty of third-degree rape of accuser Jessica Mann and a criminal sexual act of Miriam Haley, but not guilty on two of the most serious charges – predatory sexual assault against Haley, Mann and “Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra – and the first-degree rape of Mann.
Weinstein’s was one of four #MeToo-related trials that, by pure coincidence, all started around the same time in October, exactly five years after a bombshell New York Times report accused the Mirmax and Weinstein Co. mogul of sexually assaulting multiple women. The report brought forth several more Weinstein accusers, but also opened the floodgates to accusations against several prominent Hollywood figures.
Kevin Spacey wriggled out unscathed from the New York civil lawsuit brought by Anthony Rapp for an alleged 1986 assault, but still faces criminal charges in the U.K. Paul Haggis had a different outcome, as a civil jury ordered the “Crash” director to pay $10 million to a former publicist who accused him of rape in 2013.
And taking place just down the hall from the Weinstein trial was the criminal rape and sex assault case of “That ’70s Show” star Danny Masterson, which ended last month in a mistrial. The Los Angeles District Attorney must now decide whether to re-try the case, or let Masterson go free.
The four women whose accusations against Weinstein were the basis of criminal charges were:
Jane Doe 1: The model and actress, born in Russia and now living in Italy, told the jury that she was attending the Italia Film Festival in Beverly Hills in 2013 when she briefly met Weinstein at an event. Hours later, she said, he had somehow tracked her down at her hotel room and began noisily pounding on her door late at night. She says she let him into her room, where he began a sexual assault that ended in rape. Verdict: GUILTY on one count of forcible rape, one count of forcible penetration by a foreign object, and one count of forced oral copulation.
Jane Doe 2: Self-identified as Lauren Young, a model who was trying to break into acting in 2013 when she accepted a script meeting with Weinstein. She told the jury that he trapped her in the bathroom of his Beverly Hills hotel room, groped her and masturbated in front of her the day after Jane Doe 1 says she was raped. She was the only witness in Weinstein’s Los Angeles trial who also testified during his 2020 trial in New York. Verdict: MISTRIAL, jury hung one one count of sexual battery, with a 10-2 split in favor of conviction.
Jane Doe 3: A massage therapist hired by Weinstein in 2010, she testified that Weinstein trapped her in a hotel bathroom, groped her and masturbated in front of her. She continued to meet with Weinstein, including about a potential book deal, a detail that defense attorneys seized upon with her and other witnesses who also continued to have contact with him. Verdict: NOT GUILTY on one count of sexual battery by restraint.
Jennifer Siebel Newsom: Now the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, “Jane Doe 4” self-identified before the trial began. She testified through tears, sobs, and shouts that when she was an aspiring actress and documentary filmmaker in 2005, Weinstein called her to his Beverly Hills hotel for a meeting and raped her in his room in an encounter that lasted several hours. Verdict: MISTRIAL, jury hung 8-4 in favor of conviction on one count each of rape and forcible oral copulation.
The four other women who testified as “support” witnesses, but whose allegations were not among the charged crimes:
Kelly S: Self-identified as Kelly Sipherd, the one-time aspiring actress said Weinstein assaulted her in a hotel room in 1991 at the Toronto Film Festival. She said she later went to confront him at the same hotel in 2008 – and he did it again.
Ambra B: Self-identified as Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, the Italian and Filipina model and actress took a meeting with Weinstein in 2015 where she said he groped her aggressively. She immediately reported the incident to police, who helped her secretly record her interactions with him in the following days in an attempt to get a confession.
Natassia M: The Norwegian model, who self-identified as Natassia Malthe, says Weinstein showed up unannounced at her London hotel room in 2008 and raped her after the BAFTA Awards ceremony.
Ashley M: Self-identified as Ashley Matthau, the former professional dancer, who was 21 at the time, told the jury Weinstein used a female assistant to help lure her from the 2003 set of “Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights” in Puerto Rico and pinned her down while he masturbated on his hotel room bed, causing her to miss the call-time for her only scene.