- Harvey Weinstein had his first court appearance since New York’s highest court overturned his conviction.
- Prosecutors want to have a retrial in September.
- Weinstein’s separate 16-year sentence in Los Angeles is also being appealed.
Harvey Weinstein appeared in court Wednesday for the first time since last week’s explosive ruling overturning his New York rape conviction.
At the hearing Wednesday afternoon, trial judge Curtis Farber set a new trial date for “after Labor Day” of this year. Prosecutors said they would be ready for a retrial as soon as September.
New York state’s highest court overturned the former film mogul’s 2020 conviction. In a 4-3 decision, it ruled the trial judge, New York Supreme Court Justice James Burke, made an error by allowing testimony from other women who alleged Weinstein sexually abused them, even though he wasn’t charged with the conduct. Burke has since left his post, leaving the case in Farber’s hands.
While prosecutors sought to show jurors that Weinstein had repeatedly abused women, the New York Court of Appeals said such testimony was “highly prejudicial” and served to “diminish defendant’s character before the jury.”
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the judges wrote.
At the 2020 trial, jurors found Weinstein guilty of raping one woman and a first-degree criminal sex act with another woman. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has said it wants to bring him to trial again, which would require those two women to take the witness stand and submit to cross-examination from his lawyers a second time.
Weinstein, sitting in a wheelchair, was brought into the chilly courtroom — two floors down from where former President Donald Trump is sitting trial in the Manhattan criminal courthouse — where he was photographed next to his lawyers.
One of his attorneys, Arthur Aidala, objected to allowing press photographers, saying there were “a million pictures” of Weinstein from his two criminal trials and life as a celebrated film producer.
Burke said the objection was “noted.” Earlier, he clicked on the angular Tiffany-style lamp on his bench, offering more illumination for the photographers.
Manhattan district attorney prosecutor Nicole Blumberg said they would be ready to take the case to trial again as soon as September. After conferring with the attorneys, Burke said the trial would begin “Sometime after Labor Day, the exact date to be determined,” after additional court hearings.
Jessica Mann, one of Weinstein’s accusers, was in the courtroom for the hearing. Blumberg said Mann was “committed to seeing justice served again.”
“We have every belief the defendant will be convicted again after the trial,” Blumberg said.
Weinstein “has very, very serious health issues” — including reported diabetes and cardiac problems — but was under good care in Manhattan’s Bellevue hospital, Aidala told the judge.
“He’s sharp as a tack, he’s smart as he ever was, he’s read hundreds of hundreds of books,” Aidala said.
Weinstein has been serving his now-overturned 23-year-sentence in New York’s Mohawk Correctional Facility, but he still won’t walk free.
Burke said Weinstein would be remanded in the care of the New York City Department of Corrections “on consent” of his legal team.
And in Los Angeles, Weinstein was found guilty of rape in a separate trial and sentenced to 16 additional years in prison.
His legal team is also appealing that conviction. Jennifer Bonjean, the attorney representing him in that appeal, observed the Manhattan courtroom proceedings in the front row.
Aidala said the Los Angeles conviction was also in question, since jurors were informed about the New York conviction — which has now been overturned.
As he was being wheeled out of court at the end of the hearing, Weinstein low-fived members of his legal team from his wheelchair.
