Prosecutors say they are looking into “additional violent sexual assaults” allegedly committed by disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, opening the possibility that more witnesses will come forward to testify as New York seeks a new indictment after his previous conviction was overturned.
Prosecutor Nicole Blumberg argued in a Tuesday hearing before Judge Curtis Farber in New York state criminal court in Manhattan that further assaults Weinstein allegedly committed were still within the statute of limitations to be charged as crimes.
“As we said in 2020, there were women who were not ready to proceed with the legal process. Some of those women are now ready to proceed,” Blumberg said, according to Reuters.
In the February 2020 New York conviction, a jury found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape of Jessica Mann and a criminal sexual act against actress Miriam Haley. The mogul, who was sentenced to 23 years in jail, has denied the attacks, insisting the encounters were consensual.
But in April, the New York Court of Appeals in April found that Judge James Burke, who presided over the trial, made a mistake by allowing three women to testify about alleged sexual assaults by Weinstein that were not part of the criminal charges against him. The appeals court said that testimony about “prior bad acts” violated his right to a fair trial.
Prosecutor Blumberg said they don’t have new yet charges yet to bring against the former Miramax honcho, but they are still planning to retry him in the fall.
A ghostly pale-looking Weinstein, 72, had been brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair, to which he remained handcuffed, for the hearing. His attorney Arthur Aidala argued it was unfair for prosecutors to seek to add additional victims to the case after the conviction was overturned.
“Once again we have a hotline: ‘1-800 Get Harvey,’” Aidala said, adding Weinstein was suffering from a host of medical problems while being held in solitary confinement at New York City’s Rikers Island jail.
According to doctors, Weinstein has fluid in his heart, spinal stenosis and macular degeneration in his eyes, Aidala said, adding he was “suffering tremendously under his current environment”.
“His diabetes is going through the roof because the diet they give at Rikers Island is 90% sugar,” Aidala said. “He’s basically getting no treatment for that.”
He also accused prosecutors of using “delay tactics” to keep Weinstein incarcerated, which Blumberg denied. Weinstein is due back in court on July 19.
Weinstein was also sentenced to 16 years following a separate rape trial in California. The two sentences cannot be served concurrently.
