Harvey Weinstein is contemplating a plea deal to keep away from a 3rd trial in Manhattan on fees he raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann.
Amid ongoing discussions in Manhattan Supreme Court docket Thursday over how quickly the Mann retrial would start, Weinstein’s lawyer,, Arthur Aidala, stated the fallen media mogul is likely to be keen to just accept a plea.
“I would like to pursue plea negotiations, however as is custom… I would never have plea negotiations in open court,” Aidala advised Choose Curtis Farber, who joined Weinstein’s protection crew in a facet room to supervise negotiations quickly after.
Aidala stated later that Weinstein wanted extra time to achieve a call.
These discussions observe a decide’s ruling that he wouldn’t toss Weinstein’s sexual assault conviction involving one other lady over allegations of jury misconduct..
If Weinstein chooses to take a plea deal, the 73-year-old Miramax founder’s media mogul’s choice would come after a years-long authorized saga, and after a flood of allegations of sexual misconduct in 2017 that supercharged the #MeToo motion. It might mark the primary time Weinstein has admitted to sexual misconduct.
The plea would solely contain the cost of third-degree rape associated to Mann’s allegations towards him, a category E felony punishable by as much as 4 years in jail. Mann testified that Weinstein raped her in 2013 whereas acknowledging she’d maintained a years-long relationship that included consensual sexual encounters.
Jessica Mann arrives at court docket earlier than Harvey Weinstein’s retrial in Manhattan, Wednesday, Could 21, 2025, in New York. (AP Photograph/Pamela Smith, Pool)
Weinstein nonetheless faces as much as 25 years behind bars when he’s sentenced for sexually assaulting former manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley.
The case towards Weinstein reached a crescendo in 2020, when a Manhattan jury discovered him responsible of sexually assaulting Haley and raping Mann. He was sentenced to 16 years behind bars after his conviction at a 2022 trial in Los Angeles on separate rape and sexual assault fees.
In April 2024, although, a bombshell choice by New York’s Court docket of Appeals upended the Manhattan case, overturning his conviction and discovering the trial decide had wrongly allowed testimony from girls about intercourse crimes for which Weinstein was not charged.
Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg determined to attempt the case once more, including allegations from a brand new accuser, Kaja Sokola, and that retrial ended with the jury issuing a cut up verdict — convicting Weinstein of legal sexual act towards Haley and acquitting him of the identical cost relating to Sokola.
However deliberations imploded earlier than they may attain a call on Mann, and Farber declared a mistrial.
That led to Weinstein’s protection crew to degree allegations of “gross juror misconduct,” and begin their very own investigation. Two jurors signed affidavits that they have been bullied into convicting on the Haley fees, with one juror saying if he was allowed to vote by secret poll, he would have voted not responsible throughout the board.
“I regret the verdict,” that juror stated. “Without the intimidation from other jurors, I believe that the jury would have hung on the Miriam Haley charge.”
Aidala moved that the conviction be overturned in October, and referred to as for a listening to so the jurors might give testimony, however prosecutors opposed the transfer, saying it violated the state’s “no-impeachment rule” that’s designed to forestall post-trial harassment aimed toward making jurors take again their selections.
Farber on Thursday sided with prosecutors, saying that the exceptions to that rule, improper outdoors affect, or racial or ethnic bias, didn’t issue into the jury’s choice.
“The two post trial affidavits fail to demonstrate any improper outside influence or racial bias. Rather, they are grounded in statements describing the tenor and content of deliberations and the jurors’ post verdict “’belated misgivings or second thoughts,’” he wrote.
With Wire Providers.
