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The judge in Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes case declared a mistrial on the remaining rape charge after the jury foreperson said he would not continue deliberating.
The decision to end deliberations on Thursday came a day after the jury delivered a partial verdict, convicting the ex-studio boss of one of the top charges and acquitting him of another. Both charges concern accusations of forcing oral sex on women in 2006. Those verdicts still stand.
But the foreperson complained on Wednesday that he felt bullied by another juror, and on Thursday said he would not go back into the jury room, leaving the jury left considering the third charge, a rape accusation dating to 2013.
The jury of seven women and five men unanimously reached the first two decisions last Friday, the foreperson later told the judge. The verdict was delivered on Wednesday only because Judge Curtis Farber asked whether there was agreement on any of the charges.
The group was stuck on the third charge, however: a rape accusation involving a woman who also said she had a consensual relationship with the Oscar-winning producer. Under New York law, the third-degree rape charge carries a lesser penalty than the other two counts.
Weinstein denies all the charges. In an unusual exchange with the judge during some legal arguments before the partial verdict was disclosed on Wednesday, he insisted it was unfair to continue the trial after two jurors came forward with concerns about the proceedings.
“I can’t be judged by a situation that’s going on like this,” said Weinstein, 73, saying the judge was “endangering” him.
Jury-room strains started leaking into public view on Friday, when a juror asked to be excused because he felt another was being treated unfairly. Then on Monday, the foreperson complained that other jurors were pushing people to change their minds and talking about information beyond the charges.
The man raised concerns again on Wednesday. In a closed-door discussion with prosecutors, defense lawyers and the judge, the foreperson said another juror was yelling at him for sticking to his opinion and at one point vowed: “You going to see me outside.”
“I feel afraid inside there,” the foreperson told the judge and attorneys, according to a transcript.
The judge sent the jury home for the day after the partial verdict, but the foreperson later asked to come back and recapped his concerns to Farber in court. The foreperson said he was willing to return on Thursday, with Farber saying the man would not be forced to go into the jury room if he did not want to.
The third accuser, Jessica Mann, who agreed to be identified, is left still waiting for an outcome. The hairstylist and actor testified for days – as she did in 2020 – about the rape she said she endured in a Manhattan hotel room and about why she continued to see and have consensual encounters with Weinstein afterward.
“Rape can happen in relationships – and in dynamics where power and manipulation control the narrative,” Mann said in a statement on Wednesday.
Weinstein also was convicted of raping another woman in California. He is appealing that conviction.
