NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors deadlocked in Harvey Weinstein ‘s rape retrial Friday, forcing another mistrial in a #MeToo-era case that has gone to trial three times so far.
While the former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on two U.S. coasts and remains behind bars, the mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo. Weinstein appeared expressionless as court officers ushered him out in his wheelchair.
The majority-male Manhattan jury had been weighing whether Weinstein raped Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor. Weinstein’s lawyers argued that the encounter was consensual. It happened in 2013 during a fraught relationship between the then-married Weinstein and the decades-younger Mann.
READ MORE: After legal switchbacks, one of Harvey Weinstein’s accusers testifies for a third time
A juror, Josh Hadar, told reporters that he and eight others wanted to acquit Weinstein. He said Mann had an “incredible memory” when she testified for the prosecution but “forgot a lot of things” when questioned by defense attorneys.
“It spoke a little bit to her credibility. … In general, we feel kind of upset that we couldn’t come up with a verdict. We tried really hard,” Hadar, 57, said.
Weinstein’s defense lawyer Marc Agnifilo called it “a great day for our jury system.”
Juror Sarae Perez, 25, said the threshold for a conviction — beyond a reasonable doubt — was on her mind.
“There were places where we couldn’t trust her word for it,” she said.
Mann said in a statement that the mistrial “doesn’t in any way detract from the truth I told.” She said she relived painful moments and faced public attacks while seeking justice because “the power of predators remains too great.”
No immediate decision about a fourth trial
Signs of a split jury emerged a few hours into their third day of deliberations, when they sent a note saying they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. Judge Curtis Farber told them to keep trying, a common step when a jury first says it’s stuck.
More than an hour later, they sent another note saying: “We feel that no one is going to change where they stand.”
A hearing was set for June 24 to learn whether prosecutors will choose to go to a fourth trial. District Attorney Alvin Bragg said he was disappointed with the result but “we deeply respect the jury system.”
Bragg said his staff will consult Mann about another trial and also take into account what happens to Weinstein when he’s sentenced in another case. Mann was not in court when the mistrial was declared.
How the case returned for a third trial
As an Oscar-winning movie producer and studio boss, Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures and a significant Democratic donor before the long-suppressed sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against him cascaded into public view in 2017. The revelations galvanized the #MeToo movement ‘s demands for accountability for sexual misconduct, made Weinstein a pariah, bankrupted the studio and ultimately led to criminal charges against him in New York and Los Angeles.
He was convicted of some and acquitted of others. Yet Mann’s allegation lingered. Weinstein was convicted of the charge in 2020. Then an appeals court overturned that verdict, and jury deliberations broke down at a 2025 retrial. That paved the way for this year’s retrial.
Weinstein has said he was unfaithful to his then-wife and “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”
Jury heard from Weinstein’s accuser
Mann, now 40, met Weinstein at a Los Angeles party in early 2013, when she hoped to build a handful of acting credits into a big career. He took interest and soon showed that it wasn’t purely professional.
She said his initial, pushy overtures discomfited her, but she acceded to them and decided to develop a relationship with him.
She was staying with a friend at a Manhattan hotel in March 2013 when Weinstein showed up early for a planned breakfast and got a room over her objections, Mann testified. She said she accompanied Weinstein to the room to talk and made it clear she didn’t want sex.
“I said ‘no,’ over and over, and I tried to leave,” she told jurors during five days of intense testimony.
She said that Weinstein blocked her from leaving and grabbed her arms. Scared, she gave up protesting, complied with his demands to undress, and laid on a bed while he went into a bathroom, she told jurors. Then, Mann said, he raped her.
Mann told no one for years about the alleged rape. Nor did she mention it in her introspective, private writing two days later. In a note to herself, she grappled with conflicted feelings about becoming “emotionally attached” in a nonexclusive relationship with a man she didn’t name.
After Weinstein’s new lawyers confronted Mann with the note, she said she hadn’t needed to write down the allegation.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to make their names public, as Mann has done.
Weinstein defense: Mann was supportive
Weinstein didn’t testify. In his lawyers’ telling, Mann was a willing partner in a close, supportive relationship with a show-business insider who opened doors for her, but she turned on him once he became an outcast.
In the months and years after the New York encounter, Mann kept seeing and communicating with Weinstein.
At times, she pulled away to pursue and preserve a relationship with a new boyfriend, according to her emails and testimony. At other times, she turned back to Weinstein, who validated her acting dreams, told her he was proud of her and responded caringly when her father was terminally ill.
“I love u. Anything u need,” Weinstein wrote.
Over the years, he helped Mann land a movie audition — it went nowhere — and a hairstyling job. She asked him for help with such things as a car problem and a club membership, though she declined a package his office tried to send in summer 2013, when she couldn’t make rent. Mann said she understood the envelope contained $1,000 in cash.
In one of her last emails to Weinstein, in February 2017, she wrote: “I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call.” When he responded by suggesting she was “joking” and should stop using his company email, she said it was a joke and apologized.
Eight months later, she saw the news reports that propelled his downfall and ultimately prompted her to go to police.
Mann never sued Weinstein, but after his 2020 conviction, she filed for and got about $500,000 from a sexual misconduct settlement fund set up during his company’s bankruptcy. The payout was mentioned at last year’s retrial, but the defense didn’t raise it this time after extensive arguments about what could and couldn’t be said.
Associated Press journalists Ed White in Detroit and Joseph Frederick in New York contributed.
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