June 12 (UPI) — Former movie producer Harvey Weinstein won’t serve time on a third-degree rape charge after a mistrial was declared on Thursday, but he likely could be tried again.
Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Curtis Farber ruled the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the rape charge and declared a mistrial, the reported.
The declaration means Weinstein could be tried again on the charge, but the jury’s conviction on one count of sexual assault stands. Weinstein was acquitted on a second count of sexual assault.
He faces up to 25 years in prison, minus time already served, for the sexual assault conviction.
Weinstein, 73, also is slated to serve a 16-year sentence in California in a separate case that involved similar charges.
Thursday’s court ruling came after jurors allegedly engaged in chaotic behavior during the prior five days of deliberations.
A jury foreman on Wednesday notified Farber of problems within the jury and on Thursday refused to continue deliberations due to alleged threats made against him by other jurors.
Farber asked the jury foreman if he would be willing to continue deliberations, but said he would not.
Farber also asked other jurors about their willingness to continue deliberations on the rape charge.
“They were extremely disappointed that deliberations ended before the reached a verdict,” Farber told the court.
The jurors also were uncertain why the foreman claimed he had been threatened.
“They all thought they were involved in a normal discourse,” Farber said.
The jury of seven women and five men on Wednesday found Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting Miriam Haley but acquitted him on a similar charge involving accuser Kaja Sokola.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said his office will try Weinstein again on the rape accusation lodged by Jessica Mann, who said the Miramax co-founder raped her in 2013.
Accusers Haley and Sokola said Weinstein orally raped them on separate occasions in 2006.
Weinstein has maintained his innocence and says the acts were consensual.
Given the alleged issues with the jury, Weinstein’s legal team on Wednesday asked for a mistrial and accused a juror of “menacing and harassment” of the jury foreman.
A Manhattan jury in 2020 found Weinstein guilty in the matter.
An appellate court last year vacated the verdicts after ruling the trial court judge allowed prejudicial testimony that was unrelated to the charges against Weinstein.
