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The former film producer was found guilty of three counts of sexual violence this December 19 in a trial in Los Angeles. Another three of the seven total charges were considered void by the jury -made up of 8 men and 4 women-, while he was acquitted of another of the accusations.
After nine days of deliberation and a trial that has become emblematic of the #MeToo movement’s struggle, the jury finally found Harvey Weinstein guilty on charges of rape, forced oral dome and another count of sexual misconduct.
This is the second verdict against the former movie mogul in two years, time that he has been sentenced in another process for a conviction for rape and sexual assault; case developed in New York, for which he was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
After being found guilty now also in Los Angeles, Weinstein faces up to another 24 years in prison when he is sentenced. After the verdict was known, neither the prosecutors nor his defense lawyers commented on it.
“It is time for the defendant’s reign of terror to end,” Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez had said in the prosecution’s closing argument. “It is time for the kingmaker to be brought to justice,” she added.
Weinstein was acquitted of one of the seven counts he was accused of and the jury, made up of eight men and four women, was unable to reach a decision on the other three charges, including one related to the case of documentary filmmaker Jennifer Siebel Newsom. , wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The jury said it had been unable to reach a verdict in Siebel’s case, which charged him with rape and sexual assault. He couldn’t do it in another woman’s either, so the mistrial was declared on those charges.
In the absence of evidence and witnesses, the case was based on the accounts of the plaintiffs
The former Hollywood mogul was tried on seven counts based on allegations by four women he sexually assaulted between 2005 and 2013, all allegedly in Los Angeles hotel rooms.
However, unable to provide forensic evidence or eyewitness accounts of the assaults that the indictments say occurred between 2005 and 2013, the trial was marked in large part by the stories and credibility of the four women at the center of the case. .
So far, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual crimes. The sentence carried out in 2020 in New York meant a triumph for the #MeToo movement, which became largely notorious since 2017, as a result of the accusations against the producer.
The former movie mogul is serving a sentence in the Twin Towers penitentiary center in Los Angeles, after being transferred from New York in June 2021.
With Reuters and EFE
