Harvey Weinstein guilty of criminal sex act, 3rd-degree rape

After weeks of testimony, a jury has found movie producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of two out of five charges he faced in a case that started the #MeToo movement.

Weinstein was found guilty of criminal sexual act and rape.

The 67-year-old faced charges including first-degree rape, third-degree rape and predatory sexual assault. Authorities have said he’s suspected of raping one woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performing a forcible sex act on another in 2006. Weinstein denied the allegations and insisted all sexual encounters were consensual.

Update 12:18 p.m. EST Feb. 24: Weinstein’s publicist says the producer’s attorney is filing an appeal, CNN reported.

Update 12:14 p.m. EST Feb. 24: A judge has ordered Weinstein to jail immediately, ABC News reported.

Update 11:58 a.m. EST Feb. 24: Weinstein faces probation to four years behind bars for his conviction on rape in the third degree and at least 5 years in prison for criminal sexual act in the first degree, CNN reported.

Update 11:44 a.m. EST Feb. 24: Weinstein was found guilty of criminal sexual act and rape according to the Manhattan District Attorney.

The first guilty verdict came from the charges involving production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006, The Associated Press reported.

The second, third-degree rape, came from an assault that happened in 2013, the AP reported.

The jury said Weinstein was not guilty of three other charges including charges of predatory sexual assault, the most serious of the alleged crimes.

The verdict came after more than 26 hours of deliberation, CNN reported.

He could have faced up to life in prison if he had been convicted of all five counts, according to CNN.

Update 11:32 a.m. EST Feb. 24: The jury has indicated it has come to a verdict, according to multiple reports.

Update 9:44 a.m. EST Feb. 24: The jury deliberating the fate of Harvey Weinstein has started its fifth day of trying to come up with a verdict. Friday, the jury asked the judge if it could have a decision on three of the five charges and potentially be hung on two of them. The judge told them to keep trying to come to a verdict on the remaining, undecided charges, Reuters reported.

Update 3:10 p.m. EST Feb 21: The jury’s deliberations have ended for the week with no verdict. They will begin again Monday morning.

Update 2:33 p.m. EST Feb 21: The fourth day of deliberations has brought a question from the jury to the judge hearing the case.

A note from the jury asked Judge James Burke if they can be hung on counts one and three and be unanimous on the others, CBS News reported.

It is unclear if the note came from the complete jury or one or more jurors, CNN reported on air.

The judge has instructed the jury to keep deliberating, CNBC and other news outlets reported.

The judge told jurors “If you do not reach a unanimous agreement on a particular count, you cannot return a verdict on that count. Thank you for your hard work. Please go resume your deliberations,” Variety reported.

Update 5 p.m. EST Feb. 20: After deliberating for a third day, the jury has ended for the day at Harvey Weinstein’s trial without a verdict.

Jurors, before being dismissed for the day without a verdict, sent the judge a note asking to hear a reading Sciorra’s testimony when they return to court on Friday.

The jury has already looked at emails that Weinstein sent regarding Sciorra, including ones to the private Israeli spy agency he allegedly enlisted to dig up dirt on would-be accusers as reporters were working on stories about allegations against him in 2017.

Update 1:30 p.m. EST Feb. 20: Jurors focused Thursday on allegations leveled against Weinstein by actress Annabella Sciorra, who accused the Hollywood producer of raping her in the mid 1990s, according to Fox News.

Jurors began Thursday, the third day of jury deliberations in the case, by reviewing testimony from Paul Feldsher, a producer who challenged Sciorra’s claim that she had been raped by Weinstein, ABC News reported.

Sciorra’s allegation is too old to be charged on its own because of the statute of limitations, but it’s a key component of the most serious charges that jurors are weighing in the closely watched #MeToo case.

Sciorra’s account formed the basis for two counts of predatory sexual assault, a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, The Associated Press reported. The actress testified to demonstrate Weinstein’s alleged pattern of sexual predation, according to ABC News.

To convict Weinstein of that charge, jurors must agree on two things: that Weinstein raped Sciorra and that he committed one of the other charged offenses.

Jurors continue to deliberate.

Update 11:15 a.m. EST Feb. 19: Jurors have returned for a second day of deliberations in the case against Weinstein.

Update 7:07 p.m. EST Feb. 18: The jury panel of seven men and five women ended their first day of deliberations Tuesday with questions and no verdict in the Harvey Weinstein case, according to The Associated Press.

Original report: Weinstein declined to take the witness stand in his defense, USA Today reported. His attorneys called seven witnesses, including a longtime Weinstein friend who claimed he had a “sex addiction” and former associates of the six women who had taken the stand to accuse Weinstein of sexual misconduct, CNN reported.

Claudia Salinas, a Mexican model and actress, took the stand to defend herself against accuser Lauren Marie Young’s claim that she stood by and did nothing while Weinstein sexually assaulted Young at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013. Young, a model, testified last week that Salinas closed the door behind her and Weinstein as they went into the bathroom, where she alleges he stripped off his clothes, grabbed her breast and masturbated.

Once it was over, Young said she found Salinas standing outside the bathroom and shot her an evil look before leaving as quickly as she could.

“If I had done that, I would remember that,” Salinas testified. “I would never close the door on anybody.”

Weinstein's trial comes more than two years after allegations against the former movie magnate sparked an outcry that mushroomed into the #MeToo movement.

Judge James Burke warned the jury, which is made up of seven men and five women that the case and verdict is “not a referendum on the #MeToo movement.”

Since 2017, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct, according to Reuters. In addition to the accusations leveled against him in New York, Weinstein faces forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and other charges in Los Angeles stemming from a pair of alleged incidents in 2013.

If he’s convicted of the most serious charges against him, two counts of predatory sexual assault, he faces a mandatory life sentence.

The jury was made up of seven men and five women.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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