Silke Jasso
Harvey Weinstein was officially found guilty of rape in a Los Angeles trial five years after he became one of the reasons why the #The MeToo movement began. After deliberating for nine days, the jury of four women and eight men reach the verdict in the second criminal trial of the movie director. The 70-year-old is currently two years into his 23-year sentence for a sexual assault and rape conviction in New York.
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Weinstein was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation, and other sexual misconduct counts which involved a woman known as Jane Doe 1. The jury was then unable to reach a decision on several counts for charges involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who is the wife of California governor Gavin Newsom, as well as another Jane Doe.
That’s when a mistrial was declared on those certain counts. Newsom’s emotionally testified that she was raped by Weinstein in a hotel room back in 2005, which was one of the most dramatic moments in the trial.
Harvey Weinstein Convicted on Three Charges of Rape and Sexual Assault
Weinstein was also acquitted of a sexual battery allegation that was made by another woman. The director faces up to 24 years in prison when he is sentenced. Defense attorneys and prosecutors didn’t have an immediate comment on this verdict.
During the prosecution’s closing argument, deputy district attorney Marlene Martinez stated, “it is time for the defendant’s reign of terror to end. It is time for the kingmaker to be brought to Justice.”
Unfortunately, the lack of any forensic evidence or any eyewitness accounts of assaults that Weinstein was accused of and said happened in 2005 and 2013 made the case difficult to prove the credibility and stories of the four women who are at the center of the charges.
Along with Newsom, An Italian actor and model stated that Weinstein appeared uninvited at her hotel room door back in 2013 during a film festival and raped her. Lauren Young, the accuser who testified at both of his trials, stated that she was in modeling aspiring to be a screenwriter and actor who was meeting with Weinstein about a script back in 2013. That’s when he trapped her in a hotel bathroom went on to grope her and masturbated in front of her. A massage therapist also testified that Winestein and did the same thing to her after he got a massage in 2010.
The women’s stories echoed several allegations of dozen of other women who have since emerged since the director became a #MeToo mogul.
Both Weinstein and Cosby would have to rape a woman because they are both too damn ugly to get a woman any other way.