Harvey Weinstein will not get his day in court, if the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has anything to say about it.
Rogue jurors or not, Weinstein doesn’t deserve to have the rape retrial verdict from this past summer overturned and there’s no need for a hearing on the long-incarcerated producer’s request, according to Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg‘s team.
“Nearly four full months after the guilty verdict, defendant filed this motion to set aside the verdict … on the ground of claimed trial errors in the Court’s response to notes submitted by two jurors during jury deliberations,” prosecutors said in an opposition filing late Tuesday in response to the much accused and repeatedly convicted Weinstein’s up-to-date legal move.
“The Court responded appropriately during trial to the two jurors’ intermittent complaints about sporadic tension during deliberations; invasive cross-examination of the jurors during their deliberations was not warranted; and the guilty verdict cannot be impeached with post-trial juror testimony,” adds the 62-page document signed by Assistant DA Matthew Colangelo.
“The motion should be denied without a hearing.”
Judge Curtis Farber has said he will make a final ruling on Weinstein’s motion by December 22. On a busy docket, it won’t likely be the last decision the New York Supreme Court judge will be making regarding Weinstein, for better or worse.
On June 11, in the first of what will likely be two retrials of the immediately-overturned 2020 trial where Weinstein was found guilty of sex crimes and sentenced to 23 years in a state prison, the seven-woman, five-man jury found the Oscar-winning producer guilty of a first-degree criminal sexual act against Miriam Haley and not guilty of the same act against Kaja Sokola after a week of fractious deliberations. A mistrial was declared over the inability of the openly warring jury to reach a decision on a charge of third-degree rape involving accuser Jessica Mann.
Throughout the days of deliberations, the jury foreman came before Farber in open court and told him of the tensions and threats allegedly happening behind closed doors. The judge essentially told the jurors to work it out. Yet, when the foreman refused to return to the jury room to deliberate the Mann charges, a mistrial was one of the only options.
Not that the mixed verdict saw any immediate relief for Weinstein, 73, who due to an L.A. sex crimes guilty verdict in 2022 has remained at Rikers Island or in local hospitals since an Empire State appeal court threw out his 2020 conviction in April 2024.
Out of the retrial that started in April, the single count of third-degree rape carries a maximum sentence of four years. However, each first-degree criminal sexual act count carries a maximum sentence of 25 years. As of immediately, the D.A.’s office continues to insist it will pursue another retail on the Mann charges, but nothing has been set in stone.
While Bragg’s team recommends that Weinstein’s up-to-date effort to overturn that June verdict be shut down, the former mini-mogul’s team is taking the 35,000-feet approach — at least on paper. “This isn’t about second-guessing deliberations; it’s about the integrity of the process itself,” longtime Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told Deadline this afternoon amid the D.A.’s objection.
“Today’s filing by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office avoids the core issue raised in Mr. Weinstein’s motion — that several jurors reported being pressured, intimidated, and even verbally attacked into changing their votes,” Engelmayer said. “When fear and frustration replace open deliberation, the rule of law is undermined. The Constitution guarantees every defendant the right to a fair trial by an impartial jury – not one driven by coercion or groupthink. The affidavits from jurors describing the atmosphere of hostility and fear deserve to be taken seriously, not dismissed on a technicality.”
“Mr. Weinstein’s team will continue to pursue every lawful avenue to ensure that justice is based on evidence and fairness, not intimidation inside the jury room.”
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