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February 19, 2020 1:24pm
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Update, 12:33 pm The second day of deliberations brought more questions from the jurors in the Harvey Weinstein sexual misconduct trial: They asked to read all emails to, from and regarding actress Annabella Sciorra, re-hear the entire testimony of Sciorra's friend Rosie Perez, and review all Weinstein's communications with private investigators Black Cube and Guidepost Solutions – companies the Miramax co-creator hired to investigate Sciorra and other women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
The jury also wants to review communications between Weinstein and ex-Miramax consultant Paul Feldsher, a former friend of Sciorra who testified that the actress once described what she would later say was rape as merely a "crazy" encounter.
No Verdict Today In Harvey Weinstein Rape Trial; What The Jury Could Be Thinking
The requests suggest that the jury is again examining Sciorra's allegations and her role in the rape trial that focuses largely on the accusations made by Jessica Mann and Miriam Haley.
As court reporters re-read Perez's testimony, jurors once again heard the Do The Right Thing actress' account of speaking by phone to her friend one late winter night in the early 1990s when, she said, Sciorra spoke in a "weird" whispery voice, "I think something bad happened to me…I think I was raped." Perez said Sciorra later identified Weinstein as her rapist. Defense attorneys have disputed Perez's account, noting that Sciorra had previously said she told no one about the incident at the time.
Following the re-reading of the Perez testimony, jurors were dismissed for the day without reaching a verdict. The requested emails are expected to be submitted for jury review when deliberations resume for the third day tomorrow morning.
Previous, 9:20 a.m. On its second day of deliberations, the jury deciding whether to convict ex-Miramax and The Weinstein Company mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct has asked to review testimony, evidence and charges involving accuser Miriam "Mimi" Haley.
The requests today could suggest the jury is reviewing and discussing the case accuser-by-accuser. On Tuesday, the jury sent New York Supreme Court Judge James Burke questions about Weinstein accuser and The Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra – specifically Sciorra's place in the criminal charges. Jurors also requested to review emails sent by Weinstein to a private detective in 2017 red-flagging the actress as a top priority for investigation.
Today, the jury wanted to hear transcripts of Haley's graphic testimony about being assaulted by Weinstein twice during July 2006, first at his Soho apartment and two weeks later at the TriBeCa Grand Hotel. The jury also requested emails exchanged between Haley and Weinstein, and emails Weinstein sent to other people in which he discussed Haley. (Jurors also requested that windows in the very cold courtroom be closed, drawing brief applause from some journalists.)
In a word-for-word reading of Haley's testimony, two court reporters read to the jury the former Project Runway staffer's account of watching TV at Weinstein's apartment July 10 when the producer "lunged" at her, pushed her into a bedroom and onto a bed, where Weinstein held her arms as he performed oral sex on her. The explicit testimony, in which Haley said she "checked out" during the attack, included the accuser's memory of Weinstein removing a tampon from her vagina as she pleaded with him to stop.
The court reporters also read Haley's testimony about the July 26 incident at the TriBeCa Grand, in which Haley agreed to meet Weinstein in order "to regain some sort of power or something." She says she "felt like an idiot" and "felt numb" when he grabbed her and began having sex with her, calling her "a whore and a bitch."
The reading also included Haley's answers under the defense team's cross-examination, including her confirmation that she did not physically resist sex with Weinstein at the TriBeCa Grand. (Weinstein has not been charged with rape from that incident.)
Weinstein, the 67-year-old Oscar-winning producer, is on trial in New York regarding the accusations by Haley, now 42, and Jessica Mann, 34. Mann, a former actress, model and hairstylist, claims Weinstein raped her in 2013 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Sciorra's account of being raped by Weinstein at her Gramercy Park apartment during the winter of 1993-94 has not drawn stand-alone criminal charges due to New York's statute of limitations, but her claim is an essential element of two predatory sexual assault charges involving Mann and Haley.
Also today, Weinstein's attorneys again requested that the judge remove a female juror who had posted an online book review of a novel about a teenage girl and a predatory male teacher. As he did yesterday, Burke refused to remove the juror, saying, "She just hasn't done anything wrong."
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