Harvey Weinstein jury continue third day of deliberations

The Harvey Weinstein jury are set to continue deliberations for a third day in the disgraced Hollywood producer’s New York rape trial. 

So far, jurors have been focusing a lot of attention on Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra’s allegation that the once-heralded Hollywood mogul raped her in the mid-1990s. 

Sciorra’s allegation is too old to be charged on its own because of the statute of limitations, but it is a key component of the most serious charges that jurors are weighing in the closely watched #MeToo case.

Weinstein, 67, is charged with five counts stemming from the allegations of Sciorra and two other women – aspiring actress Jessica Mann who says he raped her in March 2013 and former production assistant Mimi Haleyi who says he forcibly performed oral sex on her in March 2006.

He has pleaded not guilty and maintains that any sexual contact was consensual.

Sciorra’s account is the basis for two counts of predatory sexual assault – a charge that carries a maximum penalty of life in prison. To convict Weinstein of that charge, jurors must agree on two things: that Weinstein raped Sciorra and that he committed one of the other charged offenses related to Mann or Haleyi.

The jury first signaled their interest in Sciorra on Tuesday when they sent a note seeking clarity on why Weinstein wasn’t charged with other crimes stemming from her allegation. The judge told them that they ‘must not speculate as to any other charges that are not before you’.

The panel of seven men and five women finished Wednesday’s round of deliberations by revisiting actress Rosie Perez’s testimony about what she says Sciorra told her soon after the alleged rape. 

Perez said her friend Sciorra had told her at some point in 1993, her voice shaking on the phone, that something had happened to her: ‘I think it was rape.’ 

Perez testified that months later, on a phone call from London, Sciorra said Weinstein was harassing her and she was scared.  

‘I said, ‘He’s the one that raped you’,’ and they both began crying, Perez testified.

‘Please go to the police,’ Perez said she told Sciorra. She said Sciorra responded: ‘I can’t – he’d destroy me.’

When jurors return on Thursday, they’ll see emails that Weinstein sent about Sciorra, including ones to the private Israeli spy agency he allegedly enlisted to dig up dirt on would-be accusers as reporters closed in on him in 2017.  

The trial heard that Weinstein offered Black Cube $300,000 if they kept stories about him out of the press in 2017. 

Weinstein also spoke to a private investigator about his ‘red flag list’ of people who might be talking to the press, which included Sciorra. 

The jury also sent a note on Wednesday requesting all communication between Weinstein and his friend Paul Feldsher – who was called as a defense witness. 

Feldsher’s defense testimony backfired after the prosecutors dug up damaging texts he sent to Weinstein in 2018 in which he called his accusers a ‘dogpile of actresses’.

Earlier on Wednesday, the jury had requested a court reporter to read back Mimi Haleyi’s testimony of the night Weinstein allegedly forcibly performed oral sex on her when she had her period in his apartment in 2006.

Jurors scribbled in their notepads when details of Haleyi saying ‘no, no, no’ during the alleged assault was read out. They listened carefully as they heard her say how Weinstein ‘came towards me and lunged at me, trying to kiss me’.

Some male jurors looked uncomfortable as Haleyi’s testimony about Weinstein ripping out her tampon and forcing himself upon her was read out.

Weinstein repeatedly shook his head dismissively as the testimony was read.