Harvey Weinstein found guilty of third-degree rape, criminal sex act
Former Hollywood film producer Harvey Weinstein has been found guilty of two out of five charges against him. The third-degree rape and criminal sex act charges could send him to prison for up to 25 years.
Annabella Sciorra is speaking out following Harvey Weinstein's verdict.
The Emmy-nominated actress was among the women who testified against Weinstein, 67, at his New York trial, after which, he was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman in 2006 and raping another in 2013. He was acquitted, however, of two counts of predatory sexual assault that hinged on Sciorra's testimony.
“My testimony was painful but necessary. I spoke for myself and with the strength of the eighty-plus victims of Harvey Weinstein in my heart," Sciorra said in a statement obtained by Fox News. "While we hope for continued righteous outcomes that bring absolute justice, we can never regret breaking the silence. For in speaking truth to power we pave the way for a more just culture, free of the scourge of violence against women.”
In this Thursday, Jan. 23, 2020 file photo, actress Annabella Sciorra returns after a lunch break in Harvey Weinstein's rape trial in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew) (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Sciorra, 59, alleged she was raped at her own apartment in late 1993 or early 1994 when she was about 27 years old.
The actress testified that she attended a dinner with actress Uma Thurman and other industry figures and that, afterward, she went back to her apartment. It was then that she alleges Weinstein barged in and raped her.
"I was punching him. I was kicking him. I was just trying to get him off of me," she said, describing how he pinned her down on a bed. She said Weinstein overpowered her, seizing her hands and holding them over her head, and raped her.
“I didn’t have very much fight left inside me,” Sciorra testified. “My body shut down. It was just so disgusting that my body started to shake in a way that was very unusual. I didn’t even know what was happening. It was like a seizure or something.”
Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for jury deliberations in his rape trial, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
When she ran into him about a month later and confronted him about what had happened, he said, “That’s what all the nice Catholic girls say," she testified.
Then, she said, he leaned toward her and said menacingly: “This remains between you and I.”
“I thought he was going to hit me right there,” Sciorra said.
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The jury found Weinstein guilty on Monday of third-degree rape for an assault on an aspiring actress in 2013 and of a criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006.
Fox News' Vandana Rambaran and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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