After a wild day in court in which jurors in Manhattan convicted Harvey Weinstein of a felony sex crime but were then sent home to cool off, they will return to court on Thursday to continue their deliberations.
On Wednesday, the panel of seven women and five men announced a partial verdict, convicting Mr. Weinstein on a single count of criminal sexual act and acquitting him of another count of the same charge. They have so far been unable to reach a consensus on a charge of third-degree rape.
With the verdict, Mr. Weinstein, once a powerful Hollywood mogul, was convicted a second time on sex crime charges in New York.
The jurors were ordered by the judge overseeing the trial, Curtis Farber of New York City Criminal Court, to continue deliberating on the final charge, which centers on accusations that Mr. Weinstein attacked Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress, in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.
They were sent home early on Wednesday after their deliberations had devolved into threats and yelling, according to the jury foreman, who complained to the judge that the other jurors were unduly pressuring him.
The dramatic developments this week are another chapter in the yearslong saga of Mr. Weinstein’s criminal trials and civil lawsuits after investigations by The New York Times and The New Yorker found that Mr. Weinstein had mistreated women and that his company had covered it up.
He was convicted of rape and a criminal sexual act at trial in Manhattan in 2020. The verdict, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence, was seen as a watershed moment for the #MeToo movement. He was subsequently convicted of sexual assault in a separate case in Los Angeles and sentenced to 16 years in prison there. He is appealing that verdict.
Last year, New York’s highest court overturned the Manhattan conviction, and the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin L. Bragg, said his office would move to retry Mr. Weinstein.
In April, after a new criminal sexual act charge was added to the case, jury selection for the retrial began.
Mr. Weinstein’s retrial has lasted nearly two months and featured many tense moments, during witness testimony and as the lawyers tangled in arguments. At one point, Justice Farber lost his voice following a day of objections and sidebars that briefly derailed proceedings.
At another point, he scrambled to find his gavel as a defense lawyer and a witness began shouting over one another. “I hadn’t used it in 13 years,” he said later.
And shortly after the jury received the case last week, the friction that often develops among jurors as they deliberate began spilling into the courtroom. Three jurors have requested to speak to the judge, two of them voicing concerns.
On Friday, a juror said he had overheard others on the jury — in an elevator and outside the courthouse on Thursday — talking about another member of the group. What he had heard, he believed, amounted to misconduct. Later, he unsuccessfully asked the judge to dismiss him from the case.
And on Monday, the foreman flagged his concerns for the first time. He said he was being pressured to change his vote, and that some of the other jurors were also talking about Mr. Weinstein’s past.
The juror said that he wasn’t talking about Mr. Weinstein’s past, according to a transcript of the conversation. He added, “I’m here for taking the decision myself for what happened at the time, in the moment.”
By Wednesday, his concerns had grown, and he again requested to speak to Justice Farber in private.
The foreman said he had been met with verbal threats as he refused to change his vote.
After the contentious interactions in the jury came to light, Mr. Weinstein addressed the court directly, telling the judge that “it’s not fair” that they continue to discuss his case.
“This is my life that’s on the line,” he told the court. “And you know what? It’s not fair.”
The judge, trying to reassure him, said, “I’m not going to allow any injustice to happen to you,” but he declined to declare a mistrial.
Following the partial verdict, Justice Farber ordered everyone to return on Thursday to continue with the trial.
Anusha Bayya and Maria Cramer contributed reporting.
Hurubie Meko is a Times reporter covering criminal justice in New York, with a focus on the Manhattan district attorney’s office and state courts.
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