Harvey Weinstein seems at Manhattan felony court docket for a preliminary listening to on Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in New York. Weinstein made the primary look since his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by an appeals court docket final week.
| Photo Credit: STEVEN HIRSCH
Prosecutors requested for a September retrial for Harvey Weinstein throughout a listening to Wednesday in Manhattan, the disgraced film mogul’s first court docket look since his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by an appeals court final week.
One of Weinstein’s accusers, Jessica Mann, was within the courtroom Wednesday and is ready to testify once more, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg informed the choose.
The former actor desires everybody to know that the defendant “may have power” however “she has the truth,” she stated.
“We believe in this case and will be retrying this case,” Blumberg added.
Judge Curtis Farber set a May 29 pretrial court docket date, with the goal of going to trial a while after Labor Day.
Harvey Weinstein seems at Manhattan felony court docket for a preliminary listening to on Wednesday, May 1, 2024 in New York. Weinstein made first look since his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by an appeals court docket final week.
| Photo Credit:
STEVEN HIRSCH
Weinstein, sporting a navy blue go well with, was seated in a wheelchair and didn’t tackle the court docket however smiled and shook palms with supporters within the gallery.
The 72-year-old, who has cardiac points and diabetes, has been in a hospital since his return to the city jail system Friday from an upstate jail.
In court docket, his legal professional, Arthur Aidala, stated he has no concern about his consumer’s psychological talents, describing Weinstein as “sharp as a tack. As sharp as he ever was.”
Aidala stated his consumer desires to show his innocence: “It’s a new trial, it’s a new day and his life is on the line.”
In the New York case that’s now overturned, Weinstein was convicted of rape within the third diploma for an assault on aspiring actor Mann in 2013 and of forcing himself on a TV and movie manufacturing assistant, Mimi Haley, in 2006. Weinstein had pleaded not responsible and maintained any sexual exercise was consensual.
The Associated Press doesn’t usually determine folks alleging sexual assault except they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have.
Gloria Allred, lawyer for a few of Harvey Weinstein’s victims, holds up an indication referencing the “Me Too” motion exterior of Criminal Court on May 1, 2024, in New York City. The New York State Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction final Thursday and New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg will determine whether or not to retry him.
| Photo Credit:
STEPHANIE KEITH
Speaking after the listening to, Haley’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, stated her consumer nonetheless hasn’t determined whether or not she desires to testify on the retrial, noting that doing so on the unique trial was traumatizing and painful. Haley was not in court docket Wednesday, Allred stated.
Weinstein was additionally convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of one other rape and remains to be sentenced to 16 years in jail in California. But he stays in custody in New York and can head again to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, the place he’s anticipated to stay, Aidala stated.
“He’s in constant pain that he’s fighting through,” the legal professional stated exterior the courthouse, including that Weinstein has nonetheless been studying avidly behind bars, together with a guide on Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt.
“Harvey Weinstein was used to drinking champagne and eating caviar, and now he’s at the commissary paying for potato chips and M&Ms,” Aidala stated. “He’s keeping his chin up, making the best of a horrible situation.”
On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals vacated his conviction in a 4-Three choice, erasing his 23-year jail sentence, after concluding a trial choose permitted jurors to see and listen to an excessive amount of proof in a roundabout way associated to what he was charged with.
The ruling shocked and disillusioned ladies who celebrated historic beneficial properties in the course of the period of #MeToo, a motion that ushered in a wave of sexual-misconduct claims in Hollywood and past.