NEW YORK:
Harvey Weinstein has been hit with new legal fees, a prosecutor mentioned on Thursday, because the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace prepares to retry the previous film mogul following the reversal of his rape conviction.
Jurors in Manhattan discovered Weinstein, 72, responsible on rape fees in 2020, however the New York Court docket of Appeals threw out the conviction in April, discovering Weinstein didn’t get a good trial as a result of a decide improperly allowed testimony by accusers he was not formally charged with assaulting.
Manhattan prosecutors mentioned in July that they had been investigating extra violent sexual assaults allegedly dedicated by Weinstein after extra girls agreed to testify in opposition to the Miramax studio co-founder. He has denied ever having non-consensual sexual encounters with anybody.
Throughout a listening to earlier than Choose Curtis Farber in New York state courtroom in Manhattan on Thursday, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg mentioned a grand jury had indicted Harvey Weinstein on extra fees, however didn’t specify what these crimes had been.
Weinstein was not in courtroom for the listening to. He was rushed to the hospital from New York Metropolis’s Rikers Island jail on Sunday to bear emergency coronary heart surgical procedure, and his attorneys say he’s beset with well being issues.
Weinstein’s protection lawyer Arthur Aidala mentioned the grand jury was probing three “issues,” however didn’t know whether or not that referred to particular incidents or the variety of accusers.
Farber has tentatively set a trial date for November 12. Blumberg mentioned on Thursday that prosecutors would nonetheless be ready to go to trial on that date. Aidala instructed reporters his group would attempt to delay any trial containing new fees.
Regardless of the reversal of his New York conviction, Weinstein has remained in custody in New York due to a separate rape conviction in California.
On the listening to, Farber ordered that Weinstein stay in custody at Bellevue Hospital, discovering that the most recent well being care confirmed he was not getting enough therapy at Rikers.
A #METOO MILESTONE
Weinstein’s preliminary conviction in New York was a milestone for the #MeToo motion, during which girls accused a whole bunch of males in leisure, media, politics and different fields of sexual misconduct.
A jury discovered Weinstein sexually assaulted former manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. They’re amongst greater than 80 girls who’ve accused him of sexual misconduct.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in jail for the New York case, and to 16 years in jail for the separate California case.
In that case, a Los Angeles jury discovered Weinstein responsible of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a international object involving one lady, however acquitted him of fees regarding a second accuser.
The decide overseeing the case declared a mistrial on the counts the place the jury couldn’t attain a verdict, together with the allegations made by Siebel Newsom, the spouse of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The California conviction was not affected by the New York high courtroom’s choice. Weinstein has not begun serving the California sentence.
Miramax’s hit films included “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.” Weinstein’s movie studio filed for chapter in March 2018 after the allegations in opposition to him precipitated its implosion.
Within the New York trial, portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who had manipulated girls with guarantees of profession development in Hollywood, coaxing them to resort rooms or personal flats after which overpowering and violently attacking them.
Throughout his sentencing listening to in Manhattan in 2020, Weinstein mentioned he was fearful concerning the “1000’s of males who’re shedding due course of” in the course of the #MeToo motion.
