New York Supreme Court Judge Curtis Farber on Thursday declared a mistrial in the rape charge against convicted Hollywood producer, Harvey Weinstein, after jurors bickered and failed to reach a consensus.
The foreman, head of the jury in Mr Weinstein’s case, said he could no longer participate in deliberations which he said were mostly marred with yellings and unproductive arguments.
The foreman told the judge other jurors had bullied and threatened to fight him to get him to change his vote. Although he refrained from telling the court if his vote favoured or condemned the disgraced Hollywood producer, Mr Farber concluded the information provided was sufficient to declare the third-degree rape charge a mistrial.
“Deliberations became heated to such a degree I am obligated to declare a mistrial on the one count on which you didn’t reach a verdict,” Mr Farber declared on Thursday.
The sexual felony charges against Mr Weinstein have, so far, ended in a conviction, acquittal and most recently a mistrial.
For years, Mr Weinstein has battled sexual assault allegations from over a hundred women who said the Hollywood mogul exploited them sexually with promises of stardom, sparking the #MeToo movement.
But his lawyers argued that all of Mr Weinstein’s sexual encounters were consensual and that complaints were only from people bitter about their failed entertainment careers.
Mr Weinstein was initially convicted but the New York State Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2024 after discovering misrepresentations in the testimonies of witnesses.
Judge Farber on Thursday said the rape charge filed by former aspiring actress Jessica Mann, will proceed to trial.
Ms Mann accused Mr Weinstein of raping her in a hotel room in New York back in 2013 and admitted she had had consensual sex with him after the alleged rape.
Mr Weinstein, 73, said his fate could not be decided in this manner, reacting to the feuding jurors who were taxed with indicting or acquitting him of the charge.
“I can’t be judged by a situation that’s going on like this,” Aljazeera cited Mr Weinstein, currently serving a 16-year jailterm for another sex crime in California, as saying.
