Seven years after scores of women accused Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault, sparking the global #MeToo movement, he confronts escalating legal and health issues.
On Thursday, New York indicted him on new sex crimes charges in anticipation of a fall retrial. Until his arraignment, the grand jury judgment remains sealed.
Harvey Weinstein claims all sexual activity was consent.
The 72-year-old remains hospitalized after emergency heart surgery, the latest in a series of medical issues in prison.
Current status:
NY’s highest court reversed Weinstein’s 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction in April, stating that the trial judge unjustly permitted testimony from other women not involved in the case.
Nov. 12 is the tentative date for the new trial.
It is unclear if the other accuser would testify against Weinstein again, but one has claimed she will.
For that conviction, Harvey Weinstein received 23 years in prison.
Earlier this month, authorities revealed that a Manhattan grand jury investigated up to three more Weinstein claims.
These include claims of sexual assaults at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, now the Roxy Hotel, and a Lower Manhattan apartment building between late 2005 and mid-2006, as well as a May 2016 incident at a Tribeca hotel.
Harvey Weinstein’s health makes the timing of those charges uncertain. The next court hearing before the retrial is Sept. 18.
How these new accusations will impact the retrial is anybody’s guess. The prosecutors want the additional accusations included in the retrial, while Weinstein’s legal team believes they belong in their own case.
In 2022, after a month-long trial in Los Angeles, Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of sexual misbehavior, forced oral copulation, and rape. He spent sixteen years behind bars.
Accusations surfaced that Weinstein became sexually abusive after an unwelcome intruder entered a woman’s hotel room at the 2013 Los Angeles Italia Film Festival.
In June, Weinstein’s lawyers appealed the conviction, alleging that the trial judge improperly withheld evidence showing the Italian model and actor had a sexual relationship with the film festival director during the alleged incident.
On Sept. 5, Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service dropped two sexual assault accusations against Weinstein because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”
The agency authorized the Metropolitan Police Service to charge Harvey Weinstein in 2022 for a 1996 incident in London. According to the announcement, the victim was in her 50s.
Weinstein faces many sexual misconduct lawsuits from women.
One of the latest is by Julia Ormond, who featured opposite Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall” and Harrison Ford in “Sabrina.” She sued Weinstein in New York last year for sexually abusing her in 1995 and hurting her career.
Most Weinstein lawsuits were resolved by a 2021 deal as part of The Weinstein Co.’s bankruptcy. The agreement included a $17 million victims’ fund for the 40 women who sued him.
Since his 2020 conviction, Weinstein’s lawyers have worried about his declining health.
He uses a wheelchair in Manhattan court, and his lawyers argue the jailhouse food worsens his macular degeneration and diabetes.
Harvey Weinstein underwent pericardiocentesis last week to clear cardiac fluid. His lawyers believe that his medication causes him to retain fluids, necessitating monitoring to prevent death.
He will stay at Bellevue Hospital indefinitely instead of being transported to Rikers Island’s infirmary unit after a court granted his request.
