Harvey Weinstein Faces New Sex Crime Charges in New York
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced former movie mogul, has been indicted on additional sex crimes charges in New York. These charges come ahead of a retrial in his landmark case, Manhattan prosecutors announced during a court hearing on Thursday.
The indictment will remain sealed until Weinstein is arraigned on the new charges, which could happen as early as Sept. 18. Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg revealed in court that the indictment includes “additional crimes” against Weinstein and that several accusers are prepared to testify against him.
Weinstein, 72, is recovering from emergency heart surgery that he underwent on Monday at a Manhattan hospital. The surgery was performed to remove fluid from his heart and lungs. He was not present at Thursday’s hearing.
Prosecutors who are retrying Weinstein’s case revealed last week that they had begun presenting evidence to a grand jury regarding up to three additional allegations against Weinstein. These allegations date back to the mid-2000s.
These allegations include alleged sexual assaults at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, now known as the Roxy Hotel, and in a Lower Manhattan residential building between late 2005 and mid-2006. Additionally, there is an alleged sexual assault at a Tribeca hotel in May 2016.
Because the indictment is under seal, it is not known whether the new charges involve all or some of the additional allegations.
“We don’t know anything,” said Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, outside court. “We don’t know what the exact accusations are, the exact locations are, what the timing is.”
In April, New York’s highest court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. Weinstein’s retrial is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
Prosecutors stated that they would seek to combine any new charges with the ones previously brought against Weinstein so that they could be tried together. Weinstein’s lawyers oppose this, arguing that prosecutors are attempting to strengthen their original case with additional charges involving other accusers.
Aidala said Weinstein’s defense team will not be ready to go to trial in November on the new charges. By law, he said, they will have 45 days to file court papers challenging the prosecution’s request to try the original and new indictments at the same time. This fight will likely extend into the weeks before a possible trial.
Weinstein’s new charges come after prosecutors in Britain announced last week that they would no longer pursue charges of indecent assault against Weinstein. Weinstein was the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began going public with accounts of his behavior.
Weinstein, who co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Also on Thursday, Judge Curtis Farber granted a defense request to keep the ailing Weinstein at Bellevue Hospital indefinitely instead of being transferred back to the infirmary ward at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex. Farber also ordered Weinstein’s attending physician at Rikers Island to testify at a closed-door hearing about the ex-studio boss’ health issues.
Weinstein’s surgery on Monday was his third trip to Bellevue Hospital to have fluid drained, Farber said. Weinstein has a variety of ailments that require medication and treatment. These conditions cause him to retain water in his arms, legs, abdomen, and around his heart. He needs constant monitoring to ensure that the fluid buildup does not become deadly, the judge said.
“If Mr. Weinstein dies because no one has taken the authority to stop what may be the death of Mr. Weinstein because of this back-and-forth transfer from one institution to another, it would be a miscarriage of justice to say the least,” Weinstein’s lawyer Barry Kamins told Farber. “It would be a travesty of justice.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had indicated for months that new charges against Weinstein were imminent. Weinstein was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. He produced films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”
In July, prosecutors told a judge they were actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan within the statute of limitations. They said that some potential accusers who were not ready to come forward during Weinstein’s first New York trial had indicated they were now willing to testify.
In vacating Weinstein’s conviction, New York’s Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge, James M. Burke, unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case. Burke is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said that one of the accusers in that case, Jessica Mann, is prepared to testify against him again. It’s unclear if the second accuser, Mimi Haley, would participate. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, declined to comment.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann did.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York when his conviction was quashed, was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape.
His 16-year prison sentence in that case still stands, but his lawyers appealed in June, arguing he did not get a fair trial in Los Angeles. Weinstein has remained in custody in New York’s Rikers Island jail complex while awaiting the retrial.
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Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo contributed to this report.