By Jack Queen and Luc Cohen, Reuters
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Centre in Los Angeles, California, on 4 October 2022. Photo: ETIENNE LAURENT / AFP
Harvey Weinstein has been hit with new criminal charges in New York, a prosecutor said in court on Thursday (local time), as the Manhattan district attorney's office prepares to retry the former movie mogul following the reversal of his rape conviction.
Jurors in Manhattan found Weinstein, 72, guilty on rape charges in 2020, but the New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction in April, finding Weinstein did not get a fair trial because a judge improperly allowed testimony by accusers he was not formally charged with assaulting.
Manhattan prosecutors said in July that they were investigating additional violent sexual assaults allegedly committed by Weinstein after more women agreed to testify against the Miramax studio co-founder. He has denied ever having non-consensual sexual encounters with anyone.
During a hearing before Judge Curtis Farber in New York state court in Manhattan on Thursday, prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said a grand jury had indicted Harvey Weinstein on additional charges, but did not specify what those counts were.
Weinstein was not in court for the hearing. He was rushed to the hospital from a New York City jail on Sunday to undergo emergency heart surgery, and his lawyers say he is beset with health problems.
A representative for Weinstein did not immediately return a call for comment.
Farber has tentatively set a trial date for 12 November, but has said he is open to considering an earlier start.
Weinstein's lawyer has said it was unfair for prosecutors to seek to add additional victims to the case after the conviction was overturned.
"Once again we have a hotline: '1-800 Get Harvey," defence attorney Arthur Aidala said in court on 9 July.
The onetime Hollywood kingmaker's health has deteriorated significantly in recent years, according to his representatives, and he is confined to a wheelchair due to back problems.
Despite the reversal of his New York conviction, Weinstein had remained in custody in New York because of a separate rape conviction in California.
A #MeToo milestone
Weinstein's initial conviction in New York was a milestone for the #MeToo movement, in which women accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.
A jury found 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 for the New York case, and to 16 years in prison for the separate California case.
In that case, a Los Angeles jury found Weinstein guilty of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object involving one woman, but acquitted him of charges relating to a second accuser.
The judge overseeing the case declared a mistrial on the counts where the jury could not reach a verdict, including the allegations made by Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The California conviction was not affected by the New York top court's decision. Weinstein has not begun serving the California sentence.
Miramax's hit movies included Shakespeare in Love and Pulp Fiction. Weinstein's film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 after the allegations against him precipitated its implosion.
In the New York trial, portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who had manipulated women with promises of career advancement in Hollywood, coaxing them to hotel rooms or private apartments and then overpowering and violently attacking them.
During his sentencing hearing in Manhattan in 2020, Weinstein said he was worried about the "thousands of men who are losing due process" during the #MeToo movement.
- Reuters