Chaos within the jury room led a choose Thursday to name a mistrial for the one remaining cost in opposition to disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, a rape allegation by one-time actress Jessica Mann a day after he was discovered responsible of sexually assault in his Manhattan retrial.
After an eight-week trial in Manhattan Supreme Courtroom, jurors discovered Weinstein, 73, responsible of legal intercourse act in opposition to former TV manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley, however acquitted him of the identical cost in opposition to a second accuser, Polish mannequin Kaja Sokola.
However the jury couldn’t attain a call on the third accuser, one-time actress Jessica Mann, and the jury foreman refused to rejoin his fellow jurors after reporting Wednesday that he felt threatened by one in all them telling him he’d “see me outside.”
The mistrial means prosecutors must resolve whether or not to pursue Mann’s allegations at a 3rd trial, once more subjecting her to days of direct testimony and cross-examination on the witness stand. Mann testified at Weinstein’s 2020 trial as effectively.
Assistant District Lawyer Nicole Blumberg mentioned prosecutors are prepared for spherical three, except Weinstein desires to “take responsibility” and plead responsible.
“We are ready to proceed and ready to retry,” she mentioned.
Witness Jessica Mann arrives for the retrial of former movie producer Harvey Weinstein at Manhattan Prison Courtroom on Might 21, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Picture by John Angelillo-Pool/Getty Photographs)
Deliberations went off the skids when it got here to Mann, with the jury foreman asking on three separate events to talk to the choose and attorneys away from his fellow jurors.
The foreman on Wednesday advised Manhattan Supreme Courtroom Justice Curtis Farber that one other juror had threatened him, “You gonna see me outside” throughout a shouting match, as a result of he wouldn’t change his place.
That led to requires a mistrial by Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, who mentioned the juror was the sufferer of against the law and the choose ought to name 911.
Farber launched the jury for the day and requested them to return Thursday, however not earlier than asking if they’d reached a verdict in any of the costs — and so they had, concerning Haley and Sokola.
Later, the foreman advised Farber that the jury had reached a call on Haley and Sokola days earlier, on Friday, and their resolution was unanimous. When the choose requested him if he’d been coerced, he mentioned “no,” and responded, “My own decision.” He mentioned that one of many jurors confronted him exterior as all of them left the constructing Wednesday.
The foreman mentioned he’d be prepared to return to the court docket constructing, however didn’t decide to rejoining his fellow jurors within the jury room.
On Thursday, he made that call closing.
“Yesterday we know was a stressful day. … I’m going to ask you, are you willing to go back into the jury room today and continue deliberations?” Farber requested.
“No, I’m sorry.” the foreman responded.
Mann accused Weinstein of raping her in 2013, however mentioned she maintained an advanced relationship with the movie producer for years after. Haley and Sokola mentioned Weinstein forcibly carried out oral intercourse on them in separate incidents in 2006.
Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein seems in court docket for his retrial because the jury deliberates at Manhattan Prison Courtroom on June 10, 2025 in New York Metropolis. (Picture by Michael Nagle-Pool/Getty Photographs)
Weinstein was charged with third-degree rape concerning Mann, which is punishable by as much as 4 years in jail.
The legal intercourse act cost he was convicted up is a much more severe offense, and carries a most 25-year sentence. Prison intercourse act, which was known as sodomy, entails compelled anal or oral intercourse.
Mann and Haley additionally took the stand in Weinstein’s 2020 trial, which resulted in a responsible verdict and a 23-year jail sentence. However final yr, the New York State Courtroom of Appeals overturned that conviction, saying the trial choose ought to have by no means allowed different girls whose allegations weren’t included within the prices to testify in opposition to him and set up a sample of predatory habits.
Whatever the trial’s consequence, Weinstein wasn’t going to go free — he was sentenced to 16 years behind bars after his conviction at a 2022 trial in Los Angeles on separate rape and sexual assault prices.
Initially Revealed: June 12, 2025 at 11:26 AM EDT
