Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.

When a jury found former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual act and third-degree rape Monday, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. was quick to praise the verdict as a step forward for accountability in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

"This is the new landscape for survivors of sexual assault in America," he said minutes after the verdict. "This is a new day."

But Vance's critics were quick to point out that he declined to prosecute Weinstein in 2015, when the former producer was accused of groping an Italian model. Vance has said not all the information that went into that decision, and his subsequent decision to prosecute Weinstein, has been made public.

Local elected officials and women's rights groups renewed calls for Vance's resignation during the Weinstein trial, after Evelyn Yang, the wife of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, joined the group of women who say they were sexually assaulted by former Columbia University obstetrician Robert Hadden.

Last week, the DA's office announced it was once again investigating allegations against Hadden, four years after he was allowed to take a plea deal that did not lead to prison time.

Marissa Hoechstetter, one of the women who has sued Hadden for assault in Manhattan civil court, founded Reform the SCU to call for transparency in the Manhattan DA's Sex Crimes Unit. She has also called for Vance's resignation.

"The Weinstein verdict does not change anything about Vance's history and the history of how that office has handled sex crimes," she said Tuesday.

Hoechstetter said she believes the #MeToo movement in general has encouraged women to come forward with their accounts of harassment and assault, but she said women still face hurdles in reporting crimes to law enforcement.

"The reality of our experience in the legal system is still far from what many people think it is," she said.

New York State Assemblymember Dan Quart, D-Manhattan, is a candidate for Manhattan District Attorney in the 2021 Democratic primary and has proposed a detailed plan for reform of the DA's Sex Crimes Unit.

He said the Weinstein verdict shows that jury pools, not Manhattan prosecutors, are changing. "I think (the verdict) speaks more to the #MeToo movement and how it's having a positive effect on juries and jury pools throughout different counties, especially in Manhattan, that juries will and can understand and engage on sexual misconduct and rape even in the context of a consensual relationship," Quart said. "But I don't think that has anything to do with how Cy Vance's Sex Crimes Unit is or has been operating over the past 10 years."

A spokesman for the DA's office said Tuesday that the Sex Crimes Unit has made numerous changes since the #MeToo movement accelerated in the fall of 2017, including launching a team dedicated to workplace sexual violence and teaching assistant district attorneys more about interviewing people who've gone through trauma.

Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor at Northwestern's Pritzker School of Law and a former Manhattan assistant district attorney who focused on domestic violence, said some effects of the Weinstein verdict remain to be seen, but it may give some survivors a "sense of hope" that the criminal justice system will respond appropriately.

"The reason we see so few of these cases brought forward is that prosecutors are worried about how juries will respond to the testimony of accusers," she said. "The Weinstein verdict does show that jurors can believe victims who are quote-unquote imperfect, meaning they don't conform to our idealized notions of how survivors behave, and that will resonate outside of this courtroom."

But the Weinstein accusers don't demonstrate how a jury might respond to a solo accuser, Tuerkheimer pointed out—nor to accusers who are people of color, LGBTQ, immigrants or members of other groups facing discrimination.

Read more:

Harvey Weinstein Found Guilty of 3rd-Degree Rape and Criminal Sexual Act

Prosecutors Stress Youth, Naivete of Alleged Victims; Harvey Weinstein's Lawyers Question Their Stories

Jury Selection Will Be Difficult, Extra Accusers' Testimony Key in Weinstein Rape Trial, Observers Say