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Harvey Weinstein will face a new trial in New York as soon as September, as Manhattan prosecutors vowed to once again pursue the disgraced film mogul whose 2020 conviction for sex crimes and rape was overturned last week.
In a surprise decision, the state’s highest court had quashed Weinstein’s original conviction after concluding that testimony of alleged sexual assault given by three women who were not part of the case may have unlawfully swayed the jury. Weinstein had been sentenced to 23 years in prison.
The office of the Manhattan district attorney told a criminal court on Wednesday that the case brought in 2018 “remains a strong [one]” and that the prosecutorial team would be ready to go to trial again after the US Labor Day holiday.
Weinstein, who is being treated at New York’s Bellevue hospital for various medical conditions and is confined to a wheelchair, was present for the brief hearing but did not speak. He will remain in custody in the state pending trial.
The New York state Court of Appeals’ 4-3 decision to overturn Weinstein’s conviction shocked campaigners who had held it up as a galvanising moment in the #MeToo movement to hold powerful men accountable for pervasive sexual harassment and abuse.
Campaign group MoveOn decried the move as an “injustice to the survivors who came forward to hold [Weinstein] accountable for his countless acts of sexual harassment, abuse and assault”.
The New York ruling did not affect Weinstein’s 2022 conviction on charges of rape and other sex crimes in California, for which he was sentenced to 16 years in prison. Weinstein plans to appeal against that conviction within days.
The charges on which the former producer was convicted in New York were based on two alleged incidents: raping Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress, in 2013 and forcing oral sex on Miriam Haley, a production assistant, in 2006. Weinstein was acquitted of the most serious charges against him: predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape.
Three women who were not named in the criminal case against Weinstein testified against him during trial, detailing unwanted sexual advances. The appeals court concluded this testimony was “erroneously admitted”.
A lawyer for Weinstein, Arthur Aidala, said on Wednesday that the 72-year-old was “as sharp as he ever was” and still maintained his innocence. He said his client had read hundreds of books during his incarceration.
Prosecutors were accompanied in court by Mann, who they said was there “to show that she is not backing down”.
“The defendant may have power and privilege but she has the truth,” assistant district attorney Nicole Blumberg told the court.
Ashley Judd, one of the actresses to publicly share her accusations against Weinstein, had previously called the court of appeals decision “unfair to survivors”.
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