Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein is helped into court in wheelchair as judge sets date for retrial on rape charges
DISGRACED movie producer Harvey Weinstein will be retried for sex crimes in New York.
Weinstein, whose rape conviction in New York was overturned by an appeals court in April, will go on trial on November 12.
Judge Curtis Farber set the tentative trial date on Friday after the defense and prosecution agreed they wanted to speed up the process for a retrial.
Weinstein’s attorneys told the judge they’d prefer an earlier start date than November.
“He [Weinstein] is anxious to go to trial and prove his innocence,” one of Weinstein’s attorneys told AP News after the hearing.
A frail Weinstein was wheeled into the lower Manhattan courtroom wearing a blue jacket with an American flag pin.
Farber said he’s also open to setting the retrial date earlier for sometime in September, depending on how pretrial discovery plays out.
The convicted sex offender, 72, sat in his wheelchair expressionless as the judge set the November retrial date.
Weinstein’s court hearing was delayed over an hour due to the worldwide outage affecting computers, AP News reported.
CONVICTION OVERTURNED
A New York Court of Appeals ruled on April 25 that Weinstein did not receive a fair trial in January 2020 when he was convicted of two felony sex charges.
The appeals court panel determined that Judge James Burke, who oversaw the initial trial, made crucial mistakes during the proceeding.
Burke erroneously allowed the testimony of witnesses who accused Weinstein of sexual assault, but the accusations were not part of the charges he was on trial for, according to the appeals court.
Actress Jessica Mann and film producer Miriam “Mimi” Haley, whose initial allegations against Weinstein led to criminal charges, are expected to testify again in his retrial.
Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing.
During a May 29 court hearing, prosecutors told Judge Curtis Farber that they’re looking at a new criminal indictment against Weinstein.
Prosecutors detailed that more women have come forward with claims of sexual assault against the disgraced producer, adding that some potential survivors were not willing to come forward during his initial trial.
“People who couldn’t speak out in 2020 are now willing to speak out in 2024,” prosecutor Nicole Blumberg told the judge.
It’s unclear how many more accusers could come forward with accusations against Weinstein.
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