It took more than a week for a jury of nine men and three women in Los Angeles to bring back verdicts in Harvey Weinstein’s latest trial. The results were a mixed bag, with the disgraced pervert being found not guilty of raping Jane Doe 3. The rape charges of Jane Doe 2 and Jane Doe 4 (the latter being the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom) resulted in a hung jury. But the charges brought for forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object of Jane Doe 1 resulted in guilty verdicts. Weinstein will, of course, be able to appeal the verdicts. But he won’t be leaving prison any time soon no matter how this turns out. (NY Post)

A jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, both relating to the same person, at his trial in Los Angeles.

The guilty charges were for forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object of Jane Doe 1, an Italian model, at the Mr. C Hotel in February 2013.

Three other women had also accused him of rape and sex assaults which took place between 2005 and 2013.

Over the course of this trial, we learned far more about the piggish Weinstein than most of us likely ever wanted to know. The testimony given by more than a dozen women included graphic descriptions of the former movie mogul’s “grossly deformed penis” and his habit of sending out female staffers and associates to fetch a parade of victims and bring them back to his hotel rooms.

Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence for his 2020 convictions in New York. He’s now 70 years old and supposedly in failing health, so even if the judge allows him to serve his upcoming sentences concurrently with those from his previous convictions, he’s unlikely to ever return home. (Unless he’s given some sort of mercy ruling allowing him to go home to die.) If the sentences are to be served consecutively, the show is pretty much over.

And yet somehow, none of this feels like it’s enough. Harvey Weinstein spent 68 years living as one of the most privileged and elite people in the entertainment industry. The number of young women who wound up in his bed because they were convinced that he could give them a career in Hollywood will likely never be known, but there were a lot of them. Many have clearly refused to come forward because of the stigma and the embarrassment of admitting what had happened.

Many critics have expressed hope that Weinstein’s unintentional launch of the #MeToo movement might change the “casting couch” culture in Hollywood and result in an increased awareness of the sexual abuse that has been rampant in that industry. But has it? As recently as last winter, actresses were still coming forward with stories of how they were pressured into having sex with powerful film producers and executives if they hoped to advance their careers. More of the perpetrators seem to be hauled into court these days, but the practice clearly hasn’t disappeared entirely. Hollywood is obviously too set in its ways to change and people with that sort of money and power probably still think of themselves as being untouchable.