Weinstein in court ahead of looming MeToo retrial
Disgraced media mogul Harvey Weinstein’s MeToo retrial is scheduled to begin next month with one big difference.
Harvey Weinstein’s MeToo retrial will largely be an abridged version of the original, with one big addition: A charge based on an allegation from a woman who wasn’t a part of the first case.
Just how the reprise of the disgraced movie mogul’s prosecution plays out next month is coming into focus at a hearing on Wednesday (US time).
After the hearing, Judge Curtis Farber is expected to issue rulings on a variety of issues, including the scope of accuser testimony and potential expert witnesses.
Weinstein, 72, was in court for the hearing, which started more than a hour late after Farber met the prosecution and defence behind closed doors to discuss matters still under seal.
Those included a prosecution request that two of the three accusers in the case be allowed to testify about other alleged encounters with Weinstein. They also discussed evidence of the accusers’ sexual history, which prosecutors say should be barred under New York’s Rape Shield Law.
You might like
Weinstein’s retrial is scheduled to start April 15 in state court in Manhattan — nearly a year after New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges.
At his last court appearance, in January, Weinstein implored Farber to start the retrial sooner.
“I don’t know how much longer I can hold on,” he told the judge.
Weinstein has cancer, heart issues and is enduring harsh conditions at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex.
Stay informed, daily
He arrived at court on Wednesday in a wheelchair, wearing a suit and holding a stack of documents. Before his hearing began, the ex-studio boss watched from behind the defence table as Farber spent some time resolving another matter delayed by the closed-door discussions.
Weinstein is being retried on charges that he forcibly performed oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013. The additional charge, filed last September, alleges he forced oral sex on a different woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2006.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in court papers that the woman, who has not been identified publicly, went to prosecutors just days before the start of Weinstein’s first trial but was not part of that case.
Prosecutors said they did not pursue the women’s allegations after Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison. They revisited them and secured a new indictment after the state’s Court of Appeals threw out his conviction last April.
Farber ruled in October to combine the new indictment and existing charges into one trial.
Weinstein’s lawyers contend that prosecutors prejudiced him by waiting nearly five years to bring the additional charge, suggesting they had elected not to include the allegation in his first trial so they could use it later if his conviction were reversed.
Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone.
In vacating Weinstein’s conviction, the Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge, James M Burke, unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case. Burke is no longer on the bench and such testimony won’t be part of the retrial.
Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape. His 16-year prison sentence in that case still stands, but his lawyers appealed in June, arguing he did not get a fair trial.
