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A30 up front
Tuesday 25 February 2020
Harvey Weinstein found guilty in landmark #MeToo moment

Continued from Front his lawyers said he needs more than 90 women, in-
medical attention follow- cluding actresses Gwyn-
Weinstein, 67, had a look of ing an unsuccessful back eth Paltrow, Salma Hayek
resignation as the verdict surgery. and Uma Thurman. Most of
came in, and was seen The verdict followed weeks those cases were too old to
talking to his lawyers shortly of often harrowing and prosecute.
after. excruciatingly graphic tes- During the trial, Weinstein
A judge ordered him to go timony from a string of ac- regularly trudged into the
to jail immediately. Court cusers who told of rapes, courthouse stooped and
officers surrounded Wein- forced oral sex, groping, unshaven, using a walker
stein, handcuffed him and masturbation, lewd propo- after recently undergoing
led him out of the court- sitions and that's-Hollywood back surgery — a far cry
room. The judge said he will excuses from Weinstein from the way he was de-
request that Weinstein be about how the casting picted in court as a burly,
held in the infirmary after couch works. intimidating figure whose
eyes seemed to turn black
with menace when his an-
Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for jury ger flared.
deliberations in his rape trial, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, in New
York. Many of Weinstein's ac-
Associated Press cusers described him as a
"Jekyll and Hyde" charac-
The conviction was seen as counts but had reached a ter who could be incredibly
a long-overdue reckoning unanimous verdict on the charming at first, making
for Weinstein after years of others. After some debate jokes and showing interest
whispers about his behav- in the courtroom, the judge in using his immense power
ior turned into a torrent of ordered jurors to keep de- to help their careers.
accusations in 2017 that liberating. But that was an act, they
destroyed his career and While Weinstein did not tes- said, meant to gain their
gave rise to #MeToo, the tify, his lawyers contended trust and get them to a
global movement to en- that any sexual contact place — often a hotel room
courage women to come was consensual and that or an apartment — where
forward and hold powerful his accusers went to bed he could violate them.
men accountable for their with him to advance their "If he heard the word 'no,'
sexual misconduct. careers. it was like a trigger for him,"
The jury of seven men and The defense seized on the his rape accuser testified.
five women took five days fact that two of the women Several women testified
to find him guilty. central to the case stayed that Weinstein excused
The case against the once- in contact with Weinstein his behavior as the price
feared producer was es- through warm and even for getting ahead in Holly-
sentially built on three al- flirty emails — and had wood. One said that when
legations: that he raped sex with him — well after she laughed off his ad-
an aspiring actress in a he supposedly attacked vances, he sneered, "You'll
New York City hotel room in them. never make it in this busi-
2013, that he forcibly per- The hard-charging and ness. This is how this industry
formed oral sex on Haleyi phenomenally successful works."
and that he raped and for- movie executive helped The jury heard lurid testimo-
cibly performed oral sex on bring to the screen such ny that Weinstein injected
"Sopranos" actress Anna- Oscar winners as "Good himself with a needle to get
bella Sciorra in her apart- Will Hunting," "Pulp Fic- an erection, that his geni-
ment in the mid-1990s. tion," "The King's Speech" tals appeared disfigured,
Three additional women and "Shakespeare in Love" that he sent Sciorra a box
who said they, too, were and nurtured the careers of chocolate penises and
attacked by Weinstein also of celebrated filmmakers that he once showed up
testified as part of an effort like Quentin Tarantino and uninvited at her hotel room
by prosecutors to show a Kevin Smith. door in his underwear with
pattern of brutish behavior Weinstein now faces charg- a bottle of baby oil in one
on his part. es in Los Angeles. In that hand and a video in the
The Associated Press does case, announced just as other.
not typically identify peo- the New York trial was get- The prosecution's task was
ple who say they are vic- ting under way on Jan. 6, made more complicated
tims of sex crimes unless authorities allege Weinstein because two of the wom-
they grant permission, as raped one woman and en at the very center of the
Haleyi and Sciorra did. sexually assaulted another case didn't just abandon
Jurors signaled their strug- on back-to-back nights Weinstein after the alleged
gles with the Sciorra charg- during Oscars week in 2013. encounters: Haleyi testified
es four days into delib- One of those women testi- that she had sex with him
erations. On Friday, after fied as a supporting witness two weeks later, while the
reviewing sections of her at the New York trial. rape accuser whose name
testimony and related evi- The trial was the first crimi- was withheld said she had
dence, they sent a note to nal case to arise from a a sexual encounter with
the judge indicating they barrage of allegations him more than three years
were deadlocked on the against Weinstein from afterward.q