(by Alessandra Baldini) (ANSA) - NEW YORK, DECEMBER 19 - Guilty of a rape and two sexual assaults: the jury of the Los Angeles trial against Harvey Weinstein was divided on the total of seven charges and could not find unanimity on the fact that the ex-producer had taken advantage of the women who had approached him and had tried to have sex with them without having their consent.
The former king of Hollywood is serving 23 years in prison after being sentenced in New York.
"You are our heroines against a monster", he sent to tell the women who had come forward in Los Angeles the Oscar-winning actress Mira Sorvino.
Weinstein could face up to 60 years in prison and now there is talk of a sentence of 18 and 24 years behind bars.
After nearly ten hours in closed session, jurors disagreed "against reasonable doubt" on one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault.
The verdict concluded a trial that began in late October and which had seen the testimony of 44 witnesses including Italian-Filipino model Ambra Battilana Guterres and one of the accusers, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the actress and documentary filmmaker married to California governor Gavin Newsom.
In both New York and Los Angeles, Weinstein had declined offers to testify in his defense.
At the trial in the cinema mecca, the jury fully believed the testimony of 'Jane Doe 1', a famous model in Italy at the time, who had accused Weinstein of raping her in a Los Angeles hotel in February 2013, the days of the Los Angeles-Italia festival .
The former producer, who had pleaded not guilty in all cases, was instead cleared of the assault charges against the 'Jane Doe 3' masseuse, who allegedly confided the harassment to another famous client, Mel Gibson, while the jurors divided over the other two accusers, one of whom is Newson's wife.
On her, her verdict was eight to four, not enough to declare unanimity.
"I am proud of her for having testified about her," her husband declared at the announced verdict.
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