One of the #MeToo movements’ most high-profile targets (its whole purpose for being, really), has been convicted of rape. Harvey Weinstein, frequently pictured with the Hollywood and political elite, has been convicted of rape by a New York Jury and was taken directly to prison.
He was convicted on charges stemming from a 2006 sexual assault and a 2013 rape. The jury found Weinstein not guilty on the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault, that could have resulted in a life sentence.
The most damaging conviction, for the sexual assault of production assistant Mimi Haleyi, would carry a maximum sentence of 25 years.
We’ve lost track of his list of accusers but there are at least 90 women who have levied charges of sexual discrimination, assault, or rape. He has another trial, this time in Los Angeles,
Weinstein now faces charges in Los Angeles. In that case, announced just as the New York trial was getting under way on Jan. 6, authorities allege Weinstein raped one woman and sexually assaulted another on back-to-back nights during Oscars week in 2013. One of those women testified as a supporting witness at the New York trial.
One of the issues and a key point for the defense was that the woman he was alleged to have raped continues to communicate with him in flirtatious was and is alleged to have had consensual sex after the alleged rapes.
I’m not sure how that excuses the rape but that was their point. The jury did not buy it.
Roughly 25 million has been paid out to a long list of accusers in settlements to keep those accusations out of a courtroom.
| Boston Globe (Subscription or Paywall)
