In a dramatic turn of events, the retrial of Harvey Weinstein on rape charges in New York concluded with a mistrial on Friday. The jury, unable to reach a unanimous decision in this high-profile #MeToo case, echoes a similar outcome from a previous trial last year.
Despite convictions for other sexual offenses on both the East and West coasts of the United States, Weinstein remains incarcerated. However, the unresolved status of the New York rape charge after three trials leaves the legal battle in a state of uncertainty. As the verdict was announced, Weinstein, now confined to a wheelchair, displayed no visible reaction while being escorted from the courtroom.
This particular trial revolved around accusations from Jessica Mann, a hairstylist and actress, who alleged that Weinstein raped her in 2013. The defense countered, asserting that the encounter was consensual, highlighting the complex dynamics of their relationship at the time, as Mann was significantly younger and Weinstein was married.
Signs of a deadlock became apparent on the third day of jury deliberations. Jurors communicated their inability to reach a consensus, prompting Judge Curtis Farber to encourage further discussion—a common practice in New York when a jury initially reports an impasse.
Looking ahead, a hearing is scheduled for June 24 to determine whether prosecutors plan to pursue a fourth trial. In the aftermath, District Attorney Alvin Bragg expressed his disappointment but reaffirmed his respect for the jury system, leaving the future of the case uncertain.
Bragg said his staff will consult Mann about another trial and also take into account what happens to Weinstein when he’s sentenced in another case.
As an Oscar-winning movie producer and studio boss, Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most powerful figures and a significant Democratic donor before the long-suppressed sexual harassment and sexual assault allegations against him cascaded into public view in 2017. The revelations galvanized the #MeToo movement ’s demands for accountability for sexual misconduct, made Weinstein a pariah, bankrupted the studio and ultimately led to criminal charges against him in New York and Los Angeles.
He was convicted of some and acquitted of others. Yet Mann’s allegation lingered. Weinstein was convicted of the charge in 2020. Then an appeals court overturned that verdict, and jury deliberations broke down at a 2025 retrial. That paved the way for this year’s retrial.
Weinstein has said he was unfaithful to his then-wife and “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”
Mann, now 40, met Weinstein at a Los Angeles party in early 2013, when she hoped to build a handful of acting credits into a big career. He took interest and soon showed that it wasn’t purely professional.
She said his initial, pushy overtures discomfited her, but she acceded to them and decided to develop a relationship with him.
She was staying with a friend at a Manhattan hotel in March 2013 when Weinstein showed up early for a planned breakfast and got a room over her objections, Mann testified. She said she accompanied Weinstein to the room to talk and made it clear she didn’t want sex.
“I said ‘no,’ over and over, and I tried to leave,” she told jurors during five days of intense testimony.
She said that Weinstein blocked her from leaving and grabbed her arms. Scared, she gave up protesting, complied with his demands to undress, and laid on a bed while he went into a bathroom, she told jurors. Then, Mann said, he raped her.
Mann told no one for years about the alleged rape. Nor did she mention it in her introspective, private writing two days later. In a note to herself, she grappled with conflicted feelings about becoming “emotionally attached” in a nonexclusive relationship with a man she didn’t name.
After Weinstein’s new lawyers confronted Mann with the note, she said she hadn’t needed to write down the allegation.
Weinstein didn’t testify. In his lawyers’ telling, Mann was a willing partner in a close, supportive relationship with a show-business insider who opened doors for her, but she turned on him once he became an outcast.
In the months and years after the New York encounter, Mann kept seeing and communicating with Weinstein.
At times, she pulled away to pursue and preserve a relationship with a new boyfriend, according to her emails and testimony. At other times, she turned back to Weinstein, who validated her acting dreams, told her he was proud of her and responded caringly when her father was terminally ill.
“I love u. Anything u need,” Weinstein wrote.
Over the years, he helped Mann land a movie audition — it went nowhere — and a hairstyling job. She asked him for help with such things as a car problem and a club membership, though she declined a package his office tried to send in summer 2013, when she couldn’t make rent. Mann said she understood the envelope contained $1,000 in cash.
In one of her last emails to Weinstein, in February 2017, she wrote: “I love you, always do. But I hate feeling like a booty call.” When he responded by suggesting she was “joking” and should stop using his company email, she said it was a joke and apologized.
Eight months later, she saw the news reports that propelled his downfall and ultimately prompted her to go to police.
Mann never sued Weinstein, but after his 2020 conviction, she filed for and got about $500,000 from a sexual misconduct settlement fund set up during his company’s bankruptcy. The payout was mentioned at last year’s retrial, but the defense didn’t raise it this time after extensive arguments about what could and couldn’t be said.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to make their names public, as Mann has done.