Prosecutors Call for New Trial for Harvey Weinstein After Rape Conviction Overturned

NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors have asked for a new trial in September for Harvey Weinstein during a hearing Wednesday in Manhattan, the disgraced movie mogul’s first court appearance since his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by an appeals court last week.

One of Weinstein’s accusers, Jessica Mann, was in the courtroom Wednesday and is prepared to testify again, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told the judge.

The former actor wants everyone to know that the accused “may have power” but “she has the truth,” he stated.

“We believe in this case and we will retry it,” Blumberg added.

Judge Curtis Farber set a pretrial hearing date for May 29, with the goal of going to trial some time after Labor Day.

Weinstein, dressed in a navy suit, was seated in a wheelchair and did not address the court, but smiled and shook hands with supporters in the gallery.

The 72-year-old man, who suffers from heart problems and diabetes, has been in a hospital since his return to the city jail system on Friday from an upstate prison.

In court, his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, said he had no concerns about his client’s mental abilities and described Weinstein as “sharp as a tack.” As smart as ever.”

Aidala said his client wants to prove his innocence: “It’s a new trial, it’s a new day and his life is at stake.”

In the now-overturned New York case, Weinstein was convicted of third-degree rape for attacking aspiring actor Mann in 2013 and for forcing himself on a film and television production assistant, Mimi Haley, in 2006. Weinstein He had pleaded not guilty and maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.

The Associated Press generally does not identify people who allege sexual assault unless they consent to be identified, as Haley and Mann have done.

Speaking after the hearing, Haley’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said her client has not yet decided whether she wants to testify in the retrial, noting that doing so in the original trial was traumatizing and painful. Haley was not in court Wednesday, Allred said.

Weinstein was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California. But he remains in custody in New York and will return to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where he is expected to remain, Aidala said.

“He is suffering from constant pain that he is fighting through,” the lawyer said outside court, adding that Weinstein has been reading avidly behind bars, including a book about Abraham Lincoln and Eleanor Roosevelt.

“Harvey Weinstein was used to drinking champagne and eating caviar, and now he’s in the store paying for chips and M&Ms,” Aidala said. “He holds his head up high, making the best of a horrible situation.”

On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in a 4-3 decision, erasing his 23-year prison sentence, after concluding that a trial judge allowed jurors to see and hear too much evidence that they did not They were directly related to the charges against him. .

failure surprised and disappointed women who celebrated historic achievements during the era of #Me tooa move that ushered in a wave of allegations of sexual misconduct in Hollywood and beyond.

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Associated Press writer Dave Collins in Hartford, Connecticut, contributed to this report.