Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of Rape and Sexual Assault

A Los Angeles jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty on three counts of rape and sexual assault on Monday. 

Weinstein, the movie mogul whose fall from grace ushered in the #MeToo movement, originally faced seven counts related to sexual misconduct. Though he was found guilty of raping one woman, the Jury could not reach a verdict on three of the counts, and Weinstein was acquitted of one count regarding sexual battery, the Associated Press reported.

Weinstein has been behind bars since 2020, when he was convicted of multiple sex crimes in New York. Dozens of women have also come forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, including harassment and rape.

The Los Angeles trial, which started in late October, featured testimony from eight women who said that Weinstein had sexually assaulted them. Four of the women’s accounts make up the charges, while four others testified as part of an attempt by the prosecution to establish Weinstein’s alleged pattern of predation. California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, was among the women testifying against Weinstein. Weinstein raped her in 2005, she said.

“Who would suspect that such an entertainment industry titan would be a degenerate rapist?” Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez asked the jury during closing arguments last week, according to the Associated Press.

“For this predator, hotels were his trap,” she continued. “Confined within those walls victims were not able to run from his hulking mass. People were not able to hear their screams, they were not able to see them cower.”

Weinstein has generally denied all wrongdoing, and his legal team mounted a vigorous defense during the trial. His attorneys have said that his alleged victims have fabricated the accusations, did not seem distraught enough after the alleged attacks, and labeled consensual encounters as nonconsensual in order to take advantage of the #MeToo movement. 

During opening statements, one attorney called Siebel Newsom “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead,” Buzzfeed News reported. That attorney also asked Siebel Newsom, who grew visibly emotional during her testimony, to demonstrate how she had faked an orgasm during Weinstein’s alleged assault in order, she said, to get away from the producer faster.

Siebel Newsom refused, the Daily Beast reported. “This is not When Harry Met Sally,” she said, referring to a movie where Meg Ryan famously shows how to fake an orgasm.

Of the four women whose stories make up the charge against Weinstein, just one, Lauren Young, previously testified against Weinstein in his New York trial, according to the Associated Press.

She said that he groped her and masturbated in front of her in 2013. Another woman, known in court as Jane Doe 1, testified that Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in 2013, while a woman known as Jane Doe 3 testified that he groped her and masturbated in front of her in 2010. Young is technically known as Jane Doe 2, while Siebel Newsom is Jane Doe 4.