Former film producer Harvey Weinstein will face a new trial in September in New York after the annulment of his historic 2020 conviction for sexual crimes, a judge tentatively established this Wednesday.
Weinstein, 72, returned today to the New York Supreme Court – the same court where his trial that served as a spur for the #MeToo movement was held – guarded, handcuffed and in a wheelchair, and listened in silence to the Prosecutor’s Office. and his defense to speak out in favor of a repeat trial.
Judge Curtis Farber announced that this new trial will occur “sometime after Labor Day” (September 2 in the USA), convened the parties on Wednesday, May 29 to address the evidence in the case and ordered that Weinstein remain in “pretrial detention”, as he continues to be convicted of other crimes in California.
The tycoon was wearing a suit, but he looked weak and pale due to the “serious health problems” he suffers from, according to his lawyer Arthur Aidala, which forced him to briefly enter a hospital and undergo tests last Saturday.
However, Weinstein appeared emotionally stable and greeted several of the lawyers who defended him at trial with a slight smile, ignoring Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, attorney Gloria Allred and a victim of a crime on the bench next to him. crime for which he was convicted, Jessica Mann.
“We believe in this case and we are going to repeat it,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg sentenced before the judge, pointing out that they have arguments “solids” and that Mann is “committed” to seek justice and impose their “TRUE” in front of “power and privilege” of the producer.
Aidala, who chaired the defense, argued that Weinstein has already been exonerated of a series of serious crimes and was confident that the appeal of his conviction for more sexual crimes in Los Angeles will also go forward.
At the doors of the court, Aidala referred to Weinstein as a “very sick” man but intellectually capable of facing another trial to clear his name, while Allred, who represented the victim of the second tried crime – Miriam Haley -, assured that “The #MeToo reckoning will continue.”
Last Thursday, New York’s highest appeals court ruled to overturn Weinstein’s conviction with a 4-3 majority, arguing that the 2020 trial improperly admitted testimony from several women whose allegations of crimes sexual acts were not part of the facts being judged.
The one-time Hollywood figure has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison after being convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on Haley, a production assistant, in 2006, and of third-degree rape in an attack on Mann, an aspiring actress, in 2013.
After being found guilty by a jury in March 2020, he was sent to Los Angeles to stand trial there for other sexual crimes and was sentenced again, this time to 16 years in prison.
