Aidala, Arthur L

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    Inside the Jury Room at the Weinstein Trial, Rancor and Recrimination

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    As the panelists deliberated over whether the former Hollywood mogul should be convicted of sex crimes for a second time in Manhattan, accusations began to fly.Inside the jury room at the second New York sex crime trial of Harvey Weinstein, things were getting tense.The 12 jurors had already acquitted the former Hollywood mogul on one felony sex crime charge, and they had begun to deliberate on a second when the discussions suddenly turned pointed, and personal.One juror, who had been calm and had even prayed with the others, abruptly began accusing another of having been “bought out” by Mr. Weinstein or his lawyers.The moment, which occurred on the second day of deliberations in a case that was brought by the Manhattan district attorney’s office after its earlier sex crime conviction against Mr. Weinstein was overturned, foreshadowed the rancor and dysfunction that would ultimately consume the panel, leading it to deadlock on Thursday over the question of whether Mr. Weinstein raped an aspiring actress in a hotel room in 2013.This account of what occurred in the jury room is based on interviews with several jurors, particularly one panelist who came forward twice to voice concerns to the judge about the behavior of his fellow jurors.That panelist, juror No. 7, described the interactions as having grown increasingly contentious and marked by personal attacks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Weinstein Juror Complains to Judge About ‘Playground Stuff’ by Others

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      A member of the jury at Harvey Weinstein’s Manhattan retrial on sex crime charges said that another had become the subject of a “bit of a shunning” during deliberations.As the Manhattan jurors deciding Harvey Weinstein’s fate were about to begin their second day of deliberations on Friday, a note was delivered to the judge. One of the 12 had a concern.The juror, a young man, was summoned to the courtroom. He sat in the jury box and began to vent his frustrations.He wanted to “report what I heard and saw yesterday,” he told Justice Curtis Farber of State Supreme Court, who is overseeing the trial. The man said he had overheard others on the jury — in an elevator and outside the courthouse on Thursday — talking about another member of the group. What he had observed, he believed, amounted to misconduct.Justice Farber thanked the man and sent him back to the jury room. The judge then denied a motion by Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers for a mistrial, saying it did not appear that the discussions cited by the juror involved actual trial evidence.“Notably,” the judge said, “whoever was the topic of conversation has not reported it to the court.”The surprising episode provided a rare peek into the friction that can develop among jurors in a high-stakes trial, disagreements that generally remain behind closed doors. It also seemed, at least briefly, as though it might derail the disgraced film mogul’s second New York trial on sex crime charges, and create another twist in the long-running case.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Rudy Giuliani Holds 80th Birthday Amid Many Woes

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      The indicted and increasingly isolated former New York mayor celebrated his birthday over pasta and meatballs. Donald J. Trump sent a video.Consider this Midtown split screen.Donald J. Trump on Friday appeared in the lobby of the gilded Fifth Avenue tower that bears his name to crow about the affection and campaign cash that have poured in since his conviction on 34 felonies.A few blocks away, at an Italian restaurant on East 56th Street, his former lawyer, Rudolph W. Giuliani, was having a party for his 80th birthday. There was little to celebrate. Mr. Giuliani’s run-ins with the law have left his life and finances in tatters.As he left a previous party celebrating the same birthday, he was served notice of his indictment in an Arizona election-interference case. He has also been indicted in Georgia in connection to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Mr. Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy and owes two Georgia women a $148 million judgment from a defamation case. He is relying on a 9/11 charity as one of his last financial lifelines. Mr. Trump has done little to help with his legal bills.Earlier that very day, a board that oversees lawyer discipline in Washington recommended that Mr. Giuliani be disbarred.A little after 6 p.m., he stepped out of a Dodge Durango, helped along by a security detail, and into the restaurant, Amata, a white table-clothed, red-sauce joint owned by the brother-in-law of Anthony Carbonetti, the former mayor’s chief of staff at City Hall, who attended the party.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More