Harvey Weinstein Gets Mistrial on Rape Charge After Threats to Jury Foreperson

Harvey Weinstein’s rape charge ended in mistrial after the jury foreperson refused to return to the jury room Thursday after saying he faced threats from other jurors. 

The 12-person jury in Weinstein’s trial had found him guilty Wednesday of one count of a criminal sexual act against former Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley, but not guilty of the other count of a criminal sexual act against former model Kaja Sokola.

At the time, the jury had yet to reach a verdict on rape in the third degree related to aspiring actress Jessica Mann, but jurors were sent home midday Wednesday amid concerns about fighting and tensions in the jury room. They had been in the midst of their fifth day of deliberations.

Weinstein faced one charge of rape in the third degree and two charges of criminal sexual act in the first degree, which is the higher felony charge and carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. The rape charge carries a sentence of up to four years. 

The jury foreperson had sent a note Wednesday afternoon asking to speak to the judge and then told the attorneys and Farber: “I feel afraid inside there. I can’t be inside there.” 

He added that other jurors had been trying to get him to change his decision, and, when he had refused, had said “Oh we will see you outside,” and that he was concerned for his own safety. 

“If you’re a deliberating juror you have to be punched in the face in order for it to rise to the level of a real threat,” Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala said Thursday, while moving again for a mistrial. “It’s insane in the membrane, insane on the brain.” 

When the foreperson was asked Thursday if he would return to the jury room, he told the court, “No, I’m sorry.”

Jury tensions had reached such a fever pitch Wednesday that Weinstein himself addressed the court, urging the judge for a mistrial. His request was denied at the time. 

“This is not right for me, the person who is on trial here,” Weinstein said Wednesday. “This is my life that’s on the line, and you know what? It’s not fair. It’s simple. It’s just not fair.”

The foreperson, who is charged with speaking on behalf of the jury, then returned to court after the jury had been dismissed Wednesday and implied that he did not want to go back into the deliberation room Thursday. He returned to court, but was being kept separately from the other jurors Thursday morning. 

On Monday morning, the foreperson had also asked to speak to the judge and said that jurors were considering elements from Weinstein’s past that weren’t being used as evidence in the trial and weren’t part of the charged crimes. 

Another juror, who was juror No. 7 on this case and the youngest on the jury, had asked to address the court twice Friday, first saying he had heard jurors discussing another juror in the courtroom elevators, and then asking to be excused from the jury as he did not feel the process was “fair,” while staring at the defense table. 

All of this comes after Weinstein’s 2020 rape and criminal sexual assault conviction was overturned in April 2024 after the court of appeals found the trial prejudiced Weinstein with improper rulings, including allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case.

In the 2020 trial, Weinstein received a mixed verdict with the jury finding Weinstein guilty of the crimes against Haley and Mann, but also acquitting Weinstein of first-degree rape and predatory sexual assault related to other women. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg pursued the retrial of Weinstein shortly after his conviction was overturned.

More to come.