Harvey Weinstein was found guilty Monday of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault but acquitted of a count of sexual battery after a trial in Los Angeles, nearly three years after he was convicted at a watershed sex crimes trial in New York City.
The jury of four women and eight men was hung on three other counts against Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul. They deliberated for nine days.
Weinstein, 70, pleaded not guilty in both trials and denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex. He is serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York, where he was found guilty in February 2020 of two felonies — third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act.
In both trials, Weinstein waived his right to take the witness stand.
In the Los Angeles trial, the charges stemmed from allegations by four women identified in the courtroom as Jane Does.
The jury found Weinstein guilty of three counts related to the accuser known as Jane Doe 1: forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object.
"Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013. I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal. Weinstein's lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand. But I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did," Jane Doe 1 said in a statement.
The jury found Weinstein not guilty of sexual battery by restraint against a woman known as Jane Doe 2. It was unable to reach a decision on three other sexual assault counts involving women known as Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe 4.
Jane Doe 4's lawyers have identified her to NBC News as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker who is married to California Gov. Gavin Newsom. She was one of 44 witnesses for the prosecution who testified, breaking down in tears as she described the night Weinstein is alleged to have raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel suite.
In a statement after the verdict, Siebel Newsom said in part: "Harvey Weinstein will never be able to rape another woman. 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."
Gavin Newsom said he was "incredibly proud of my wife and all the brave women who came forward to share their truth and uplift countless survivors who cannot."
When the guilty verdicts were read, Weinstein looked down at a table and appeared to put his head in his hands. He then looked straight ahead as the rest of the verdicts were read aloud.
"Harvey is obviously disappointed in the verdict," said Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer, contending that Jane Doe 1's accounts "do not make sense." Engelmayer added that "Harvey is grateful for the jury's work on the other counts, and he's going to continue his legal fight."
Jurors are expected to return to the courthouse Tuesday to hear arguments on aggravating factors. Depending on how they decide, Weinstein could face a maximum of 18 to 24 years in prison.
The trial took on higher stakes after the New York State Court of Appeals agreed in August to allow Weinstein to appeal his 2020 conviction.
Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón thanked the jurors for their service and hailed the accusers who came forward.
"I want to thank the survivors in this case, who exhibited extraordinary bravery in a case that put them in the national spotlight," Gascón said. "Reporting sexual assault is never easy. Subjecting oneself to at times brutal cross-examination can be retraumatizing and extraordinarily painful.
"I stand in awe of their fearlessness," he added. "They deserve better than what the system has given them."
In opening arguments, Los Angeles prosecutors portrayed Weinstein as a relentless sexual predator who lorded his status as “the most powerful man in Hollywood” over the women he abused.
Weinstein lawyer Mark Werksman countered that the accusers engaged in consensual and “transactional” sexual conduct with his client, accusing them of reframing their experiences as abuse in the wake of the #MeToo movement.
The defense called six people to testify.
In the 1990s and the 2000s, Weinstein and his younger brother, Bob, were titans of the movie business, producing seminal films like “Pulp Fiction” and distributing Oscar-winning dramas such as “Shakespeare in Love” and “The King’s Speech.”
Weinstein is on trial five years after The New York Times and The New Yorker first published explosive investigations into allegations of a pattern of sexual misconduct.
The stories inspired a wider reckoning with abuses of power in entertainment and other high-profile industries that quickly became known as the #MeToo movement.
Daniel Arkin reported from New York, and Diana Dasrath reported from Los Angeles.
