NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein received’t face a fourth trial on a New York rape cost. Prosecutors dropped the #MeToo-era case on Thursday after his accuser mentioned she couldn’t bear to testify once more.
The film mogul nonetheless stands convicted of one other sexual felony in New York and others in California, and he stays behind bars. However the New York rape cost had remained unresolved after an overturned conviction adopted by two hung juries.
Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actor, spent days on the witness stand in any respect three trials, telling jurors that Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan lodge in 2013 and being questioned extensively in regards to the complicated relationship she had with him earlier than and afterward. The Oscar-winning producer denied the cost and mentioned all the pieces that occurred between him and Mann was consensual.
In a letter that prosecutor Nicole Blumberg quoted in court docket Thursday, Mann mentioned she might “not endure going by means of this,” including that the 8-year-old case has “put me by means of extra hurt than good.”
Blumberg advised the court docket that prosecutors imagine Mann and hail her “bravery, energy, braveness and inspiration” to different survivors, however given her emotions about continuing, “dismissal is acceptable.” With that, Choose Curtis Farber formally dismissed the case.
Weinstein left court docket with a impartial expression, returning to jail to await a September sentencing on a New York sexual assault conviction involving a special girl. Prosecutors are looking for a 20-year jail time period.
As soon as Weinstein finishes no matter punishment he will get in New York, he’s on account of serve 16 years in California, the place he was convicted of raping a 3rd girl, who’s an Italian actor. He’s interesting each convictions.
Weinstein’s attorneys mentioned he was was relieved by the dismissal of the case surrounding Mann’s allegation.
“These expenses ought to by no means have been introduced to start with,” lawyer Jacob Kaplan mentioned exterior court docket. “He’s harmless.”
Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with Weinstein, who was married on the time.
However she advised jurors she repeatedly tried to go away and mentioned no to any sexual exercise as he cornered her in a lodge room on March 18, 2013. They’d deliberate to satisfy within the foyer for breakfast, however he had spontaneously taken a room.
She mentioned he persevered, demanding that she undress and grabbing her arms, till she was afraid to maintain protesting.
The most recent trial, this spring, took a visual toll on Mann, 40. Throughout 5 days of testimony, she was questioned for the primary time a couple of diarylike, soul-baring word she wrote two days after the alleged rape, which the word didn’t point out. At one level throughout her testimony, Mann mentioned she was struggling to focus, prompting court docket to wrap up early for the day.
In her letter to the court docket Thursday, she mentioned she had suffered a concussion shortly earlier than her testimony, had complications and different signs on the stand and in the end “disassociated.” It was a humiliating addition to an already crushing expertise, she wrote.
“I’ve been fragmented, silenced, defamed and traumatized. I’ve paid the worth of my repute,” Mann wrote. Slamming the court docket, the media and Weinstein, she mentioned her expertise confirmed that “pursuing justice is best left a pipe dream.”
Weinstein was one of many film business’s strongest figures, a producer of such tastemakers and hits as “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.”
Then a sequence of sexual misconduct allegations in opposition to him grew to become public in 2017, fueling the #MeToo marketing campaign for accountability and ultimately resulting in prison expenses in New York and Los Angeles.
He denied all of them and was acquitted of some, at the same time as he was convicted of others.
Throughout a sequence of trials, Weinstein was convicted in 2020 of raping Mann. Then an appeals court docket overturned that verdict for causes unrelated to her testimony. Jury deliberations broke down at a 2025 retrial, and jurors deadlocked once more at this yr’s retrial.
The rape cost on this case was a low-level felony punishable by as much as 4 years in jail — much less time than Weinstein, 74, already has served.
Weinstein didn’t testify at any of the trials, although he complained throughout and after the 2025 New York retrial that it was unfair; the choose disagreed.
His attorneys have maintained that each one his accusers had utterly consensual sexual liaisons with a film studio boss who might assist them go locations in present enterprise. Weinstein himself has mentioned he “acted wrongly, however I by no means assaulted anybody.”
The Related Press doesn’t establish individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted, until they select to be named, as Mann has achieved.
