The jury in the Harvey Weinstein trial appears to be divided.
E! News can confirm the panel of five women and seven men sent a note to the judge Friday afternoon asking what to do if they could not reach a verdict on two counts of predatory sexual assault. The jury, however, was unanimous on the other charges.
“We the jury request to understand if we can be hung on 1 and/or 3 and unanimous on the other charges,” the jury asked. After conferring with attorneys, court officials instructed the jury to continue to deliberate into the afternoon.
The jurors have been deliberating since Tuesday morning. Earlier in the week, the group had sent a note to a judge asking for the legal meaning of terms like “forcible compulsion.”
Harvey has pleaded not guilty in the case and has consistently denied any and all allegations of nonconsensual sex.
The jury is considering charges that Harvey raped former actress Jessica Mann in a New York City hotel room in 2013 and sexually assaulted former Project Runway production assistant Mimi Haley in his apartment in 2006.
The defense attempted to portray the accusers as consenting participants in sexual activity. NBC News reported that Harvey’s lawyers presented an email correspondence after the alleged assaults that they described as friendly or “loving.”
“Weinstein may be able to avoid testifying in the criminal trial, but he will not be afforded that right in his civil trials,” attorney Douglas H. Wigdor, who represents several of the alleged victims, said in a statement. “I relish the day when I get to cross-examine him and ask him to answer for the wrongs he has committed against so many women.”
The court confirms that deliberations ended Friday without a verdict and deliberations will resume on Monday.
