Harvey Weinstein was arraigned on additional sex crimes charges in a New York court on Wednesday, about two months before a retrial in the disgraced Hollywood producer’s landmark #MeToo case.
Weinstein, who arrived at the Manhattan courthouse in a wheelchair, has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree criminal sexual conduct. He is recovering from emergency heart surgery this month and his lawyer said he is taking 19 medications.
In New York’s penal code, a first-degree criminal sexual act is engaging in “oral or anal sexual conduct with another person” by “forcible compulsion.” This is a Class B felony.
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the charge stems from the alleged sexual assault of a woman at a Lower Manhattan hotel in 2006, between April 29 and May 6.
“Thanks to this survivor who had the courage to come forward, Harvey Weinstein is now charged with another alleged violent sexual assault,” Bragg said. “The investigation is ongoing.”
In total, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment over the decades. The allegations inspired the #MeToo movement, a global reckoning with abuses of power in entertainment and other industries. Weinstein has repeatedly denied the allegations, insisting that the relationships in question were consensual.
In early 2020, a New York jury convicted Harvey Weinstein of third-degree rape of Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actress, and first-degree criminal sexual conduct of Mimi Haley, a former production assistant on “Project Runway.” (He was acquitted of two counts of predatory sexual assault and one count of first-degree rape.)
But in April, the New York State Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 23-year prison sentence by a vote of 4-3, blasting the trial judge for allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the charges against them. The court called the decision “highly prejudicial.”
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the court wrote.
Weinstein’s retrial is set to begin on November 12. Haley’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said her client agreed to testify again against Weinstein because she “believes it’s the right thing to do.” In a statement last week, Mann said she plans to use her “voice” against him.
“I look forward to continuing to use it when I’m back in court with Harvey and proving that my life has value,” Mann said. “I know now that’s something he can never take away from me.”
Lindsay M. Goldbrum, the attorney for the woman whose grand jury testimony formed the basis of the new indictment, said her client was “fully prepared to tell the truth at trial to hold Mr. Weinstein accountable before a jury of his peers.”
The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced in July that it planned to retry Weinstein, and Manhattan prosecutors announced at a court hearing last week that he had been indicted on new charges.
He remained in custody at Rikers Island jail awaiting a new trial, but a judge last week granted a defense request to let him stay at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan instead of being returned to the jail’s infirmary.
In addition to the New York case, Weinstein was convicted of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault at a trial in Los Angeles in late 2022. (The jury acquitted him of one count of sexual assault by coercion and failed to reach a verdict on three other counts of sexual assault.) He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Weinstein’s legal team has appealed the Los Angeles verdict. At both trials, Weinstein pleaded not guilty and chose not to testify in his own defense.
In the 1990s and 2000s, Weinstein was a titan of the film industry as co-head of Miramax and The Weinstein Co. He presented himself as a show business kingmaker, producing landmark independent films (including “Pulp Fiction”) and distributing Oscar-winning dramas such as “The English Patient,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The King’s Speech.”
But her reign in Hollywood collapsed in October 2017 after investigative reporters from The New York Times and The New Yorker published stories about serial sexual misconduct allegations. The flood of allegations inspired other women to speak out against powerful men in entertainment, finance and other industries.
Adam Reiss And Lisa Rubin contributed.
