Harvey Weinstein will appeal his convictions on charges of sexual assault and rape, his lead attorney Donna Rotunno told reporters following Monday’s guilty verdicts in New York.
“We absolutely will be appealing. The fight is not over,” she said after a jury of 12 found Weinstein guilty of sexual assault and rape but acquitted him on the most serious predatory charges.
“Harvey’s unbelievably strong. He took it like a man. And he knows that we will continue to fight for him and we know that this is not over,” Rotunno added.
Weinstein, 67, was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and of raping ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
He was cleared of predatory sexual assault charges, which required the jury to believe “The Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra’s allegation that Weinstein raped her almost 30 years ago.
Rotunno suggested intense media coverage had worked against the disgraced movie mogul.
“The jurors came in knowing everything that they could know about this case. We couldn’t find a juror that had never heard of Harvey Weinstein,” said Rotunno.
“I thank all of you for starting to become fairer as time went on and I think that once everybody looked at the evidence it’s fairly clear that we were on the right side,” she added.
AFP
