Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial opens in New York

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Prosecutors as soon as once more portrayed Harvey Weinstein as a onetime Hollywood energy participant who used his sway as a instrument of sexual assault, repainting a well-known however fraught image Tuesday at a rape retrial, almost eight years after the previous film tycoon's arrest.

"This case will come right down to energy, to regulate and to manipulation," Manhattan Assistant District Legal professional Candace White informed jurors as opening statements started within the bellwether #MeToo case, with District Legal professional Alvin Bragg watching from the viewers.

Weinstein lawyer Jacob Kaplan countered that the case really "is about consent, about alternative and about remorse," echoing Weinstein's longtime defence that his accuser has recast a keen encounter as a criminal offense.

Since Weinstein grew to become a significant goal of the #MeToo motion in opposition to sexual misconduct almost a decade in the past, he has been convicted of some sexual assault expenses and acquitted of others in trials on two U.S. coasts. A few expenses in the end had been dismissed. However the rape cost involving a 2013 encounter in a Manhattan lodge has lingered, resulting from an overturned conviction adopted by a jury impasse.

The allegation is, by now, well-known. However the contours of the case have modified.

The prior trials included different accusers and expenses. This trial is pared right down to the only query of what occurred in a lodge room one morning between Weinstein and hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann, although jurors will once more additionally hear so much about their relationship earlier than and after.

Change in trial Weinstein additionally switched his authorized staff, and with it the rhetorical type and maybe some strategic selections in his defence. His new attorneys have made clear that they intend to be extra circumspect about broaching, for instance, Mann's compensation from a claims fund for ladies who mentioned Weinstein sexually mistreated them.

Weinstein has pleaded not responsible and denies ever having nonconsensual intercourse. He mentioned in court docket in January that he had been untrue to his then-wife and "acted wrongly, however I by no means assaulted anybody."

WATCH | A 2025 conviction: Jury finds Harvey Weinstein responsible on one cost in intercourse crime trial

Harvey Weinstein was convicted Wednesday on one of many expenses in his intercourse crimes retrial however acquitted of one other. A verdict continues to be but to be reached on a 3rd cost of third-degree rape. The jury — seven males and 5 girls — was chosen final week. Weinstein's final New York jury was majority feminine, however his first was largely male.

Now a 73-year-old jail inmate, Weinstein was as soon as one of the crucial influential individuals in Hollywood. An Academy Award-winning producer and a studio boss, he helped carry such acclaimed movies as Pulp Fiction, Shakespeare in Love and Gangs of New York to film homes and the favored actuality collection Undertaking Runway to TV. He additionally was a distinguished Democratic donor.

His profession collapsed in 2017, when years of Hollywood whispers about his behaviour towards girls grew to become public accusations in information and social media. Prison expenses adopted in New York and Los Angeles.

Weinstein and Mann's historical past Jessica Mann was a 27-year-old hairstylist hoping to interrupt into big-time appearing when she met Weinstein at a Los Angeles-area celebration in early 2013.

She has testified that she was searching for knowledgeable connection however ended up, ambivalently, in a consensual relationship with the then-married Weinstein.

Throughout a New York journey with a buddy in March 2013, she organized a breakfast for buddies and Weinstein, she mentioned at earlier trials. In response to Mann's prior testimony, Weinstein in the end trapped her in a lodge room, ignored her protestation that "I do not wish to do that," demanded she undress and grabbed her arms. She mentioned she succumbed as a result of she "simply needed to get out."

WATCH | Why Weinstein's 2020 conviction was overturned: Why Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction was overturned | About That

New York's highest court docket has overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 conviction for sexual assault and rape, a landmark ruling of the #MeToo motion. Andrew Chang explains how the prosecution knew it was taking a raffle, and the place that gamble went mistaken. White informed jurors Tuesday that Weinstein "was used to getting his method. He did what he needed, when he needed and with whom he needed."

"Behind closed doorways, energy meant him taking what he needed from the sufferer on this case."

Weinstein shook his head barely at one level as White claimed that he had "silenced" Mann by letting her know that crossing him may very well be skilled quicksand.

Weinstein's defence emphasised that after the alleged rape, Mann stored seeing Weinstein, accepting invites, asking him for profession assist and sending heat messages to him.

She has mentioned she was making an attempt to keep away from angering a risky and well-connected man. However his lawyer mentioned the case "is not a 'he-said, she-said' — will probably be her phrase in opposition to her personal phrase."

"Ask your self: What's Jessica Mann getting from Harvey Weinstein?" Kaplan informed jurors. He contended that she re-evaluated the connection and got here to remorse it years later, however that "doesn't take away consent."