NEW YORK — 5 years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and hauled to jail in handcuffs, the previous film mogul returns to a Manhattan courthouse Tuesday for a brand new trial masking the exact same allegations – plus one which hasn’t been tried earlier than.
It is not double jeopardy, however reasonably a authorized redo after a New York appeals courtroom overturned the landmark #MeToo verdict a yr in the past.
The state’s Courtroom of Appeals threw out Weinstein’s convictions and 23-year jail sentence and ordered a brand new trial after discovering that the unique one was tilted by “egregious” judicial rulings and prejudicial testimony.
Jury choice may take a couple of days. Opening statements and the beginning of testimony are anticipated subsequent week. Choose Curtis Farber mentioned that along with 12 jurors, six alternates will likely be picked. Prosecutors count on the retrial to final a month.
Here is what it’s essential to learn about Weinstein’s retrial:
How is that this trial completely different from 2020?
In some methods, the brand new trial will likely be two trials spliced into one.
Weinstein, 73, faces expenses involving two girls from his unique trial in 2020, Jessica Mann and Miriam Haley, and he is being tried for the primary time on an allegation from a girl who wasn’t within the first case.
Weinstein has pleaded not responsible and denies that he raped or sexually assaulted anybody. Prosecutors usually are not allowed to retry Weinstein on sure counts that he was acquitted of throughout his first trial, together with expenses of predatory sexual assault and one rely of first-degree rape.
The judicial reboot will play out in a distinct local weather than Weinstein’s first trial, which drew intense media consideration and noticed protesters chanting “rapist” exterior the courthouse.
The #MeToo motion, spawned by scores of allegations in 2017 towards the ex-studio boss, has developed and ebbed over time, and Weinstein has since been convicted in a separate rape case in Los Angeles – a verdict he’s additionally interesting.
Whereas some stars are nonetheless dealing with a authorized reckoning for alleged sexual misconduct – like Sean “Diddy” Combs, who is ready to go to trial subsequent month – the drumbeat of allegations towards highly effective figures has abated from #MeToo’s early days.
What’s Weinstein accused of?
Weinstein is being retried on two expenses from his unique trial: one rely of prison intercourse act for allegedly forcibly performing oral intercourse on a film and TV manufacturing assistant in 2006 and one rely of third-degree rape for allegedly assaulting an aspiring actor in a Manhattan resort room in 2013.
Haley, a former manufacturing assistant on the Weinstein-produced “Mission Runway,” testified on the 2020 trial that he pushed her onto a mattress at his Manhattan condominium in June 2006 and compelled oral intercourse on her, undeterred by her kicks and pleas of, “No, please do not do that, I do not need it.”
Haley, who has additionally passed by the identify Mimi Haleyi, acknowledged that she stored in contact with Weinstein, exchanged heat messages with him, and accepted an invite to his resort room two weeks after the alleged assault, the place he pulled her into mattress for intercourse. Below New York legislation relevant on the time, Weinstein has not being charged with rape in reference to Haley’s allegations.
Mann, who mentioned she noticed Weinstein as a “pseudo father” determine as she pursued an performing profession after a tough upbringing, testified on the 2020 trial that he trapped her in a resort room in March 2013, ordered her to undress as he loomed over her, after which raped her. She alleges that Weinstein raped her once more eight months later at a Beverly Hills resort, the place she labored as a hairdresser.
Mann additionally stored in contact with Weinstein after the alleged assault, testifying that she despatched him flattering emails, as a result of “his ego was so fragile,” she mentioned, and it “made me really feel protected, worshipping him on this sense.”
What’s the new cost he faces?
Along with Haley and Mann, Weinstein can be charged with one rely of prison intercourse act for allegedly forcing oral intercourse on a distinct lady at a Manhattan resort in 2006.
That lady, who was not a part of Weinstein’s first trial, has not been named publicly. The Related Press doesn’t usually determine folks alleging sexual assault until they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have finished.
Prosecutors mentioned that the girl got here ahead to them simply days earlier than the beginning of Weinstein’s first trial however was not a part of that case. They mentioned they didn’t pursue the ladies’s allegations after Weinstein’s conviction, however revisited them and secured a brand new indictment after the primary verdict was thrown out.
Weinstein’s legal professionals contend that prosecutors should not have waited practically 5 years to deliver the extra cost.
Why is there a brand new trial?
New York’s highest courtroom, the Courtroom of Appeals, threw out Weinstein’s conviction in April 2024.
In a 4-3 determination, the courtroom mentioned then-Choose James Burke had denied Weinstein a totally honest trial by letting three girls testify about allegations that weren’t a part of the case and his determination to let prosecutors confront Weinstein, if he had testified, over his historical past of brutish conduct.
The courtroom labeled the allegations towards Weinstein “appalling, shameful, repulsive conduct” however warned that “destroying a defendant’s character below the guise of prosecutorial want” didn’t justify some trial proof and testimony. Burke’s time period expired on the finish of 2022, and he’s not a decide.
In a dissenting opinion, Courtroom of Appeals Choose Madeline Singas wrote that her colleagues within the majority have been persevering with a “disturbing development of overturning juries’ responsible verdicts in circumstances involving sexual violence.”
The ruling got here at “the expense and security of ladies,” she wrote.
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