Harvey Weinstien convicted of rape again

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A Los Angeles jury found the disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein guilty on Monday of three counts of sexual assault, including rape, ending a criminal trial that lasted more than four weeks and featured testimony from 49 individual witnesses.

Weinstein, 70, was charged with seven criminal counts involving four different women. The charges included three counts of forcible rape, two counts of sexual battery by restraint, one count of forcible oral copulation and one count of sexual penetration by a foreign object. He pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

Weinstein was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object involving an accuser known as Jane Doe 1. He was acquitted of sexual battery against an accuser known as Jane Doe 3. The jury could not reach a verdict on charges involving Jane Doe 2 and Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, and a mistrial was declared on those counts.

Weinstein currently faces a maximum of 18 years in prison, but that could increase to 24 years depending on how the jurors decide on aggravating factors related to the charges. The jury is scheduled to return Tuesday to hear arguments on those aggravating factors.

Following the announcement of the verdict, Jane Doe 1 said in a statement: "Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein's lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did."

"I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime," she said.

Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence after a New York jury convicted him in 2020 of rape in the third degree and a first-degree criminal sex act. 

The allegations brought against Weinstein in Los Angeles directly involved four women, all of whom were referred to as Jane Doe in court, and an additional four appeared in court to testify. Two accusers remained anonymous. The first, known as Jane Doe #1, a Russian actor and model now based in Italy, gave an emotional three days of testimony and was the first witness to take the stand. The second, Jane Doe #3, testified that Weinstein trapped her in a hotel bathroom and assaulted her when she was hired to give him a massage in 2010. 

The other accusers have identified themselves publicly. They are Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who testified in mid-November; Lauren Young, the only accuser who testified against Weinstein at both his Los Angeles and New York trials; Kelly Sipherd; Ambra Battilana Gutierrez; Natassia Malthe; and Ashley Matthau. 

Attorney Gloria Allred, who represented Lauren Young in both the New York and Los Angeles trials, said that Young was "very happy that there were convictions in this case," even though the jury could not reach a verdict on the charge related to her. Allred added that if prosecutors decide to try Weinstein on that charge again, Young is willing to testify for a third time.