Harvey Weinstein Returns to Court as Jury Deliberates in Rape Retrial

Harvey Weinstein returned to court Thursday and jurors resumed deliberations in his rape retrial a day after the former movie producer reported chest pains while in the courthouse. Weinstein, who is 74 and has a history of heart trouble and other health issues, looked pale but alert as he was brought into court in the wheelchair he has used for years.

He was taken back to a holding area after appearing as deliberations continued.

The previous day, jurors sent a note after a few hours of deliberating asking to rehear some of accuser Jessica Mann’s testimony and to review a lengthy prosecution timeline of emails and other evidence. Defense lawyers, prosecutors and the judge convened to decide how to respond. Weinstein’s attorney said court officers had told him Weinstein was experiencing chest pains.

Weinstein was not brought into court at that point. The judge sent jurors home a bit earlier than planned, citing “unforeseen reasons” for the early dismissal. Jurors received the requested information Thursday morning.

They then returned to their closed-door discussions. The testimony they reheard included a point the defense highlighted in its closing argument. Mann said she was “spacing out” as a defense lawyer asked why she did not want friends to know that anything sexual had happened between her and Weinstein.

The defense sought to suggest she was worried about her reputation rather than a rape. Mann, 40, has testified that she willingly had some sexual encounters with the then-married producer but that he subjected her to unwanted sex in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013 after she repeatedly said no. Weinstein’s lawyers maintain the encounter was consensual.

They have emphasized that Mann continued seeing Weinstein and expressing warmth toward him afterward. Mann has said she was mired in complicated feelings about him, herself and what had happened. Her viewpoint changed in 2017 when a series of sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein propelled the #MeToo campaign.

Weinstein has said he “acted wrongly” but never assaulted anyone. Some of those accusations generated criminal convictions against him in New York and California. An appeals court overturned his 2020 New York conviction on charges that involved Mann and another accuser.

At a retrial last year, jurors failed to reach a verdict on Mann’s portion of the case, leading to the current retrial. Weinstein is charged with one count of rape in the third degree. The current jury heard nearly three weeks of testimony, five days of it from Mann.

Weinstein did not testify. The Associated Press generally does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, but Mann has agreed to be named.