By Jack Queen and Jody Godoy
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Jurors in Harvey Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault retrial will begin deliberating on Thursday in a Manhattan court, weighing the credibility of the former movie mogul’s three accusers against the defense’s efforts to brand them liars.
The Academy Award-winning producer and Miramax studio co-founder is accused of raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and assaulting two other women in 2006 and 2002. Weinstein, who has denied ever having non-consensual sex or assaulting anyone, has pleaded not guilty. The trial began in April.
Weinstein, 73, is on trial for a second time after a New York state appeals court threw out his conviction in April 2024. He faces up to 25 years in prison for two counts of criminal sexual acts and up to four years for one count of rape.
Weinstein’s defense lawyer Arthur Aidala moved for a mistrial on Thursday morning, after New York Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber said he would dismiss a juror who called in sick and seat an alternate.
Aidala argued for a break in the trial to allow the original juror to deliberate.
“If you have an objection to the way the law is written, contact the New York state legislature,” the judge said.
Weinstein is already serving a 16-year prison sentence after being found guilty in December 2022 of rape in California.
Two days of closing arguments wrapped up on Wednesday, and Farber will instruct the 12 jurors on the law before handing them the case.
Prosecutors with the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who promised career advancement in Hollywood to women, only to then coax them into private settings where he attacked them.
“He held the golden ticket, the chance to make it or not. He made each of these women feel small, no match for the power broker of Hollywood,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told jurors on Wednesday.
Weinstein’s defense lawyers have said his encounters with the women were consensual and accused them of lying about being raped after failing to make it big in Hollywood by sleeping with him.
“They are lying about what happened. Not about everything, but about a small slice – just enough to turn their regret, their buyers’ remorse, into criminality,” Aidala told jurors Tuesday.
Weinstein was convicted of rape by a Manhattan jury in February 2020, but the New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction and ordered a new trial, citing errors by the trial judge. Weinstein had been serving a 23-year sentence in a prison in upstate Rome, New York, when the conviction was overturned.
That conviction was a milestone for the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men.
Weinstein has been held at New York City’s Rikers Island jail since his conviction was overturned. He has had several health scares while being held at Rikers, and in September was rushed to a hospital for emergency heart surgery.
More than 100 women, including famous actresses, have accused Weinstein of misconduct. He has denied assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex.
Miramax studio produced many hit movies in its heyday, including “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.”
Weinstein’s own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, five months after the original sexual misconduct accusations became widely publicized.
(Reporting by Jack Queen in New York;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Deepa Babington)
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