By JENNIFER PELTZ<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 New York prosecutors have dropped a rape charge<\/a> against Harvey Weinstein<\/a> instead of trying it a fourth time. His accuser supported Thursday\u2019s decision, which puts an end to one piece of a landmark #MeToo-era prosecution.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t clear the former Hollywood honcho\u2019s criminal record. The 74-year-old has been convicted of other sex crimes in two states and is still behind bars while he appeals those verdicts.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what you need to know about the case:<\/p>\n Charge dropped when accuser said she couldn\u2019t endure another trial<\/p>\n Jessica Mann<\/a>, the hairstylist and actor who accused Weinstein of raping her in a New York hotel room in 2013, told the court in a letter that she \u201ccould no longer endure going through this.\u201d<\/p>\n She had given extensive, emotional testimony at three trials. One produced a conviction<\/a> that later got overturned<\/a> for reasons unrelated to her testimony. Then two retrials ended in hung juries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mann, 40, said in her letter that she \u201cgave my all\u201d in the case, it \u201cput me through more harm than good\u201d and she wanted to close this chapter of her life.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said they believed Mann and were confident in the case, but they would drop it because of her wishes and Weinstein\u2019s other convictions.<\/p>\n Weinstein\u2019s lawyers said the charge should never have been brought in the first place.<\/p>\n He denies the allegation, and his lawyers said the encounter was part of a consensual, yearslong relationship. Mann testified<\/a> that in the early months of that relationship, Weinstein raped her after cornering her in a Manhattan hotel room, grabbing her arms and ignoring her repeated pleas not to have sex.<\/p>\n Dismissal doesn\u2019t affect Weinstein\u2019s convictions<\/p>\n Mann\u2019s allegation was one of a number of criminal charges that evolved from a 2017 deluge of sexual misconduct allegations<\/a> against Weinstein, an Oscar-winning producer who had huge sway in Hollywood. The accusations propelled the #MeToo movement<\/a> against sexual assault and sexual harassment.<\/p>\n Weinstein was convicted of some charges and acquitted of others at trials in New York and California. The dismissal of the Mann-related case doesn\u2019t affect his convictions, which involved other women.<\/p>\n Weinstein is facing sentencing in other case<\/p>\n Weinstein, who has said<\/a> he \u201cnever assaulted anyone,\u201d is challenging his convictions. He was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting an Italian actor-model in Los Angeles<\/a> and sexually assaulting Miriam Haley<\/a>, a production assistant and producer, in New York.<\/p>\n The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted, unless they choose to make their names public, as Mann and Haley have done.<\/p>\n Weinstein, 74, is facing sentencing in September on the conviction tied to Haley \u2014 a verdict reached in at a 2025 retrial<\/a> after an appeals court reversed an earlier conviction. Haley testified that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her after inviting her to stop by his Manhattan apartment before a flight in July 2006.<\/p>\n Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year sentence for that conviction. Weinstein\u2019s lawyers say they haven\u2019t yet decided what sentence they will seek.<\/p>\n