Dec. 19 (UPI) — Former film producer Harvey Weinstein was found guilty in Los Angeles on Monday of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, nearly three years after being convicted of sex crimes in New York.
The jury, which deliberated for 10 days, found Weinstein guilty of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration following weeks of emotional and graphic testimony from 44 witnesses.
While Weinstein, 70, was found guilty on three counts, the jury was hung on one count of sexual battery by restraint, one count of forcible oral copulation and one count of rape. Jurors also found Weinstein not guilty of one count of sexual battery by restraint.
Weinstein, who did not take the witness stand, pleaded not guilty to all seven charges.
During the trial, prosecutors said Weinstein used his influence in Hollywood to lure women into private meetings and assault them.
“Rapists rape. You can look at the pattern,” prosecutor Paul Thompson told jurors on Dec. 2.
“You have irrefutable, overwhelming evidence about the nature of this man and what he did to these women.”
Jurors will return to court on Tuesday to consider aggravating factors that will help determine the outcome of Weinstein’s sentencing hearing. He faces a possible sentence of 24 years in prison.
Weinstein is currently serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York after he was found guilty in February of 2020 of a criminal sexual act and third-degree rape.
The former film producer was first charged with sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2020 as his trial in New York was beginning. The New York State Court of Appeals agreed in August to allow Weinstein to appeal that conviction.
At the time, Weinstein was accused of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another over a two-day period in Los Angeles in 2013. He was charged with four counts, one each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint.
In April 2020 as Weinstein began serving his 23-year sentence for his conviction in the New York trial, Los Angeles prosecutors added an additional charge based on a 2010 incident in Beverly Hills.
Later that year, prosecutors again added six new charges — three counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation — for additional accusations including that he raped a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2004 and another woman in 2009 and 2010.
Weinstein was later indicted by a grand jury working with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in July of 2021. The grand jury found that there was enough evidence to charge Weinstein with the sexual assault of the five women nearly a decade.
While Weinstein initially faced 11 charges in Los Angeles, four counts were connected to an unnamed woman who did not testify and were eventually dropped.
On Monday, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón thanked the jurors and the accusers.
“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,” he added. “I stand in awe of their fearlessness.”
