(NEW YORK) — The sequel to the biggest victory of the #MeToo era starts Tuesday when disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein is retried in New York for alleged sex crimes.
It could take five days to seat a jury, Judge Curtis Farber has said.
A jury in the same courthouse convicted Weinstein in 2020 of sex assault before New York’s highest court overturned the conviction, deciding the judge had improperly allowed certain testimony from women whose accusations were not part of the criminal charges.
His attorneys have said they hope a changing political climate could make the outcome of Weinstein’s second New York trial different than the first.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not guilty to all charges, including a new allegation from a woman who came forward after his conviction.
One of the women alleged Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006. A then-aspiring actor alleged she was raped in 2013. The new accuser alleged Weinstein forced oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2006.
The defense accused prosecutors of withholding the new accuser’s account as a hedge, but prosecutors denied that, and the judge declined to dismiss the case.
The alleged victims who testify will no longer be referred to as survivors after the judge granted a defense request to call Weinstein’s accusers complaining witnesses. They are expected to testify under their real names.
Farber granted a request from the Manhattan district attorney’s office to call a witness who is an expert on the psychological effects of rape.
The decision to re-try Weinstein fell to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who reconfigured the way his office handles sex crimes. The Special Victims Division has successfully prosecuted a man who raped two young women at knifepoint after responding to their online advertisements for commercial sex, a man who raped a cleaner in the building where he worked as the superintendent and a man who sexually abused two children living in the shelter where he worked.
Weinstein, who has appeared in court in a wheelchair, sued New York City over his treatment and questioned whether he would live through a second trial while incarcerated in the “hellhole” of Rikers Island.
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