A Los Angeles judge has dropped four of the 11 sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein.
Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench dismissed two counts of forcible rape and two counts of forcible oral copulation against the 70-year-old Weinstein.
The move had appeared likely since the trial’s opening statements three weeks ago, when prosecutors during opening statements only mentioned four women Weinstein was charged with assaulting, leaving out the accuser identified in an indictment as Jane Doe 5.
An explanation for why Jane Doe 5 was left out of the trial has not been given.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s wife Jennifer Siebel Newsom took the stand in the trial against Weinstein on Monday. She described the entertainment mogul’s “distorted” and “fish-like” genitals in her sometimes emotional testimony.
“Lots of bruises, markings, yellow and green, lots of stretch marks on his belly, very not physically fit at all,” Siebel Newsom said after being asked to describe Weinstein, Page Six reported. “Looked uncircumcised and strange though, kind of fish-like, the penis, something was distorted in the testicles … Lots of skin, lots of skin down there.”
Siebel Newsom has been identified in court as Jane Doe 4 and alleged that Weinstein raped her at a hotel in 2005.
“I’m standing. I’m resisting,” she recounted in her testimony, according to the outlet. “Horror. I’m trembling. This is my worst nightmare. I’m just this blow-up doll that he’s just trying to masturbate off of.”
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The remaining charges against Weinstein, who is serving a 23-year sentence for a conviction in New York, are two counts of rape and five other sexual assault counts.
He has pleaded not guilty and has said he didn’t engage in non-consensual sex.
Weinstein also faces charges in London. Authorities authorized two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein back in June.
In 2020, Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape against Jessica Mann and one count of a criminal sexual act in the first degree against Mimi Haley. He was acquitted on two counts of predatory sexual assault.
Weinstein attempted to appeal the rape conviction, but lost in court.
The ruling, issued by a five-judge panel in New York’s intermediate state appeals court, rejected the former film producer’s claims that the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him by allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the criminal case.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
