NEW YORK.- Harvey Weinstein arrived on Wednesday to a Manhattan court, in his first appearance since his condemn for 2020 rape was overturned by an appeals court last week.
Weinstein, dressed in a navy suit, was sitting in a wheelchair pushed by a court officer as he entered the preliminary hearing in Manhattan.
Weinstein’s defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, said his client attended the hearing even though the 72-year-old had been hospitalized shortly after his return to the city’s jail system on Friday. He has said that Weinstein, who suffers from heart problems and diabetes, was undergoing unspecified tests because of his health conditions.
Aidala said he is not concerned about his client’s mental capacity, describing Weinstein as: “sharp as a tack. As sharp as ever.”
Prosecutor’s actions
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office has said it is determined to retry the case against Weinstein. Legal experts believe it could be a long road and that it all comes down to whether the women he is accused of sexual crimes are willing to testify again. One of them, Mimi Haley, said Friday that she was still considering whether she would testify in a new trial.
Prosecutors said one of the accusers, Jessica Mann, who was in court Wednesday, is prepared to testify again and suggested setting a September date for the new trial.
Aidala said his client wants to prove his innocence: “It’s a new trial. It’s a new day.”
The once-powerful film producer was also found guilty in Los Angeles in 2022 for another rape and is still sentenced to another 16 years in prison in California.
annulment of the conviction
In the New York case that was overturned, he had been convicted of rape for an assault against an aspiring actress in 2013, and for abuse of Haley, a former production assistant on Project Runway, in 2006. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty. and claims any sexual encounter has been consensual.
The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they were sexually assaulted unless they consent to being named, as Haley and Mann have done.
On Thursday, the New York Court of Appeals overturned his conviction in a 4-3 decision, throwing out his 23-year prison sentence, after concluding that a trial judge allowed jurors to see and hear too much evidence. that were not directly related to what he was accused of.
The ruling shocked and disappointed women who had celebrated historic achievements during the #MeToo era, a movement that ushered in a wave of allegations of sexual violence in Hollywood and beyond.
FUENTE: AP
