Harvey Weinstein’s Manhattan intercourse crimes retrial kicks off Tuesday — with a brand new witness set to accuse the disgraced film mogul of forcing her right into a sick encounter at a Manhattan lodge.
Three accusers in complete will confront the jailed “Pulp Fiction” producer — whose 2020 conviction on the peak of the #MeToo motion was overturned on enchantment — at a trial set to final greater than a month.
Two of the ladies, Miriam “Mimi” Haley and Jessica Mann, will take the stand once more to explain how they had been sexually assaulted by Weinstein, 73, the once-powerful Hollywood kingpin who has been accused by greater than 80 girls of sexual misconduct.
A 3rd girl, who has not been publicly recognized, will testify that Weinstein compelled her into oral intercourse at a Manhattan lodge in 2006, prosecutors say.
Jury choice will begin Tuesday.
The previous Miramax head had been sentenced to 23 years behind bars within the Manhattan case after a dramatic trial the place prosecutors alleged that Weinstein preyed on weak girls who sought him out to advance their careers.
However New York’s highest appeals courtroom reversed the conviction in April 2024, discovering that the trial decide had unfairly let three extra girls testify, though Weinstein wasn’t charged on their allegations.
Weinstein was individually convicted of rape in California after an Italian mannequin testified that he threw himself on her after showing uninvited exterior her lodge room throughout an Italian movie competition in 2013. The convicted intercourse pest was sentenced to 16 years in jail in that case however is interesting.
Weinstein is taken into account the poster boy of the #MeToo anti-sex-harassment revolution. His first trial featured dozens of girls dancing and chanting exterior the courthouse in flash mob protests in opposition to sexual violence.
The previous studio head’s attorneys have argued that the general public outcry tainted the jury and thwarted Weinstein’s proper to a good trial.
“Five years ago when you guys were here, there were protests, there were people chanting ‘fry Harvey,’ ‘Harvey’s a rapist,” Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala advised reporters final week.
“There was #MeToo, Oprah Winfrey, and then, you know, all these people were just so against him. The jurors had to be terrified if they would have acquitted him about pushback from their own families and their own communities,” Aidala added.
“I think that overall has died down. We have bigger things to worry about with stock markets crashing and wars overseas, and I just think that it’s a different environment.”
It’s unclear if Weinstein will select to testify. The three accusers who the appeals courtroom — in a cut up 4-3 ruling a dissenting decide ripped as “disturbing” — mentioned unfairly testified on the first trial received’t take the stand this time round.
“We’re going to try the case on the facts and on the allegations, and nothing else,” Manhattan Supreme Courtroom Justice Curtis Farber mentioned throughout final week’s listening to.
Weinstein faces as much as 25 years in jail on two counts of first-degree legal sexual act, and 4 years in jail on a cost of third-degree rape.
His legal professionals are anticipated to argue at trial that the ladies consented to the sexual encounters.
Further reporting by Cecelia Catalini
