Harvey Weinstein was found guilty on one sexual assault charge Wednesday and acquitted on the other, but the two witnesses related to the counts are both viewing it as a win that keeps the former mogul in prison.
A jury of 12 gave their unanimous verdicts on the two counts Wednesday, finding Weinstein guilty of one count of a criminal sexual act against former Project Runway assistant Miriam Haley, but not guilty of the other count of criminal sexual act against former model Kaja Sokola. The jury was sent home for the day, amid inflamed tensions among the jurors, to resume deliberations Thursday on the third count, rape in the third degree related to aspiring actress Jessica Mann.
The charge of criminal sexual act in the first degree, which here is related to performing oral sex on the complainant, is the higher felony charge and carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years. And so while Weinstein was not convicted on the charge related to Sokola, she said she remained happy about the outcome.
“I’m very happy about today’s verdict. I’m proud of the other two girls, the other two women who testified. It was an extremely difficult journey for all of us to relive our traumas and to go through it in open court. It’s a big win for everyone. Harvey Weinstein will be in jail,” Sokola told reporters outside the courthouse Wednesday.
Weinstein also still faces a 16-year prison sentence in California, after being convicted in 2022 of rape and other sex crimes. His legal team has appealed that conviction.
Miriam Haley, who also testified in Weinstein’s 2020 trial, saw the verdict as sending a message to sexual predators.
“Testifying in the face of constant disruptions, victim shaming, and deliberate attempts to distort the truth was exhausting and at times dehumanizing,” Haley told reporters. “But today’s verdict gives me hope. Hope that there is new awareness around sexual violence and that the myth of the perfect victim is fading. And I hope that this result empowers others to speak out and seek justice. To those predators who still believe they can exploit, abuse and walk away unscathed: Your time is running out. The world is changing. And you will not outrun the consequences of your actions forever.”
Her attorney, Gloria Allred, who has also represented women coming forward against Jeffrey Epstein, R. Kelly and Sean “Diddy” Combs, added that this was confirmation that the #MeToo movement is not dead, as has been discussed in the press.
“That obituary was obviously premature and I don’t think it applies at all based on my experience for almost 15 years in women’s rights,” Allred said.
Haley had testified to meeting Weinstein at the Cannes Film Festival and then later getting work from him on Project Runway. He later invited her to a movie premiere in Los Angeles, which she accepted, and then stopped by his apartment before leaving. It was there that she said Weinstein backed her into the bedroom, held her down and forced himself on her orally. Her account was backed up by her former roommate, as well as a friend.
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. Weinstein was convicted on the charges related to Haley and Mann in 2020.
Sokola was not part of Weinstein’s 2020 case, but was a key witness for the prosecution in this one. She testified to meeting with Weinstein for lunch at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in 2006 and being invited up to his hotel room to see a script, as she pursued becoming an actress. When she followed him up, she testified that Weinstein asked her to come up to a hotel room to see a script and then forcibly held her down on the bed, removed her stockings and underwear and performed oral sex on her as she repeatedly asked him to stop.
The defense team had sought to undermine her testimony by pointing to the fact that Sokola had not told her sister, who was at the lunch, about the assault, and even unveiled a diary from Sokola that did not include the sexual assault. As with the other victims, they also pointed to the fact that Sokola had received $475,000 as part of a settlement fund related to the 2016 incident with Weinstein.
Sokola had also received a $3 million settlement in a civil lawsuit filed against Weinstein’s brother Bob Weinstein, Disney and Miramax in 2019 related to an incident in which Sokola said she had been sexually assaulted by Weinstein in 2002, when she was 16. That incident was not charged in this case, but did come up in her testimony.
As Sokola’s attorney, Lindsay Goldbrum, pointed out at the press conference, it’s also hard to prove allegations that happened 20 years ago beyond a reasonable doubt.
“For myself, it’s the closing of a chapter that caused me a lot of pain throughout my life. And having prosecutors hear my story, go through all the details with me and believe me and support me was extremely powerful,” Sokola told reporters.
And while Goldbrum also saw the conviction as a positive for the #MeToo movement, she added that it “still has a lot of work that has to be done” in terms of the courts and judicial systems “denying justice.”
