NEW YORK, Sept 12 (Askume) – Harvey Weinstein faces new criminal charges, prosecutors said on Thursday , as the Manhattan district attorney’s office prepares to charge the former movie mogul after his rape conviction was overturned.
Jurors in Manhattan found Weinstein, 72, guilty of rape in 2020, but a New York appeals court threw out the conviction in April , saying Weinstein did not receive a fair trial because the judge ignored the testimony of his accuser. He has not been formally charged with the attack.
Manhattan prosecutors said in July they were investigating other predatory sexual assaults allegedly committed by Weinstein as more women agreed to testify against the Miramax co-founder . He denied having sex with anyone without consent.
During a hearing Thursday before New York State Court Judge Curtis Farber in Manhattan, prosecutor Nicole Bloomberg said a grand jury had returned additional charges against Harvey Weinstein but did not specify what those crimes were.
Weinstein did not appear in court during the hearing. His lawyer said he was airlifted to a hospital from New York City’s Rikers Island jail on Sunday for emergency heart surgery and is suffering from health problems.
Weinstein’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, said the grand jury was investigating three “matters” but he did not know if the investigations related to specific incidents or how many people were charged.
Farber’s trial is scheduled for Nov. 12. Bloomberg said Thursday that prosecutors would still prepare for a hearing on that date. Aidala told reporters his team would try to avoid any trial involving the new charges.
Although Weinstein’s conviction in New York was overturned, Weinstein remains in custody in New York due to another rape conviction in California.
During the hearing, Farber ordered Weinstein to be detained at Bellevue Hospital because the latest health care reports showed he was not receiving adequate care at Rikers.
Milestones for #METOO
Weinstein’s first conviction in New York is a milestone in the #MeToo movement, in which women have accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.
The jury found that Weinstein sexually assaulted former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. They are among more than 80 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison in the New York case and 16 years in the California case.
In that case, a Los Angeles jury found Weinstein guilty of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration with a foreign object, but acquitted him of charges related to the second accuser.
The judge in the case declared mistrials in counts where juries were unable to reach verdicts, including allegations brought by Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The New York Supreme Court’s ruling will have no effect on the California decision. Weinstein has not yet begun serving his sentence in California.
Miramax’s hits include “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.” Weinstein’s film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 as the allegations against him accelerated the studio’s demise.
At his trial in New York, Weinstein was portrayed as a serial predator who lured women with the promise of career advancement in Hollywood, lured them to hotel rooms or private apartments and then forcibly assaulted and violently attacked them.
In 2020, Weinstein said during his sentencing hearing in Manhattan that he was “concerned about the thousands of men who have lost due process” during the #MeToo movement.
