By Jack Queen
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Harvey Weinstein is set to stand trial on rape and sexual assault charges in Manhattan on Tuesday, a year after a state appeals court overturned the former movie mogul’s 2020 conviction.
Weinstein, 73, faces one rape count and two criminal sexual act counts in the jury trial, with Superior Court justice Curtis Farber presiding. Weinstein, who co-founded the Miramax studio and was once one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, has pleaded not guilty and has denied ever assaulting anyone or having non-consensual sex.
His conviction was a capstone moment for the #MeToo movement, which encouraged women to come forward with allegations of sexual misconduct by powerful men in media, politics and other spheres.
The trial, set to begin with jury selection on Tuesday, is expected to last roughly six weeks. Farber and lawyers for both sides are set to question and select 12 jurors from a pool of Manhattan residents. The verdict must be unanimous to convict.
A jury found Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault in 2020, and he was sentenced to 23 years in prison. A state appeals court threw out the conviction in April 2024 and ordered a new trial, finding that women who accused Weinstein of assaults that were not part of the charges against him should not have been allowed to testify.
Prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office have accused Weinstein of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013, charges he was convicted of in the first trial. In the retrial, Weinstein also faces a new charge of allegedly assaulting an unidentified woman in Manhattan in 2006.
During the first trial, prosecutors portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who manipulated women with promises of career advancement in Hollywood, coaxed them into hotel rooms or private apartments, and then overpowered and attacked them.
Weinstein is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison even if he is acquitted in the retrial in New York because he was sentenced to 16 years after being separately convicted of rape in California. He has yet to begin serving that sentence and has remained in custody in New York since his conviction there was overturned.
In September, Weinstein was rushed to a hospital and underwent emergency heart surgery. The episode was one of several health scares while he was held in New York City’s Rikers Island jail, where his representatives have said he was receiving inadequate medical care.
More than 100 women, including famous actresses, accused Weinstein of misconduct, and the allegations against him were a focal point of #MeToo. He denied the allegations and said any sexually encounters he had were consensual.
Weinstein’s film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, collapsing after the original accusations of sexual misconduct.
(Reporting by Jack Queen;Editing by Noeleen Walder and Will Dunham)
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