The sequel to the largest victory of the #MeToo period begins Tuesday when disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein is retried in New York for alleged intercourse crimes.
It might take 5 days to seat a jury, Decide Curtis Farber has mentioned.
A jury in the identical courthouse convicted Weinstein in 2020 of intercourse assault earlier than New York’s highest courtroom overturned the conviction, deciding the decide had improperly allowed sure testimony from girls whose accusations weren’t a part of the prison prices.
His attorneys have mentioned they hope a altering political local weather might make the result of Weinstein’s second New York trial totally different than the primary.
Weinstein, 73, has pleaded not responsible to all prices, together with a brand new allegation from a girl who got here ahead after his conviction.
One of many girls alleged Weinstein forcibly carried out oral intercourse on her in 2006. A then-aspiring actor alleged she was raped in 2013. The brand new accuser alleged Weinstein pressured oral intercourse on her in a Manhattan resort room in 2006.
The protection accused prosecutors of withholding the brand new accuser’s account as a hedge, however prosecutors denied that, and the decide declined to dismiss the case.
The alleged victims who testify will not be known as survivors after the decide granted a protection request to name Weinstein’s accusers complaining witnesses. They’re anticipated to testify beneath their actual names.
Farber granted a request from the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace to name a witness who’s an knowledgeable on the psychological results of rape.
The choice to re-try Weinstein fell to Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg, who reconfigured the best way his workplace handles intercourse crimes. The Particular Victims Division has efficiently prosecuted a person who raped two younger girls at knifepoint after responding to their on-line ads for business intercourse, a person who raped a cleaner within the constructing the place he labored because the superintendent and a person who sexually abused two kids dwelling within the shelter the place he labored.
Weinstein, who has appeared in courtroom in a wheelchair, sued New York Metropolis over his therapy and questioned whether or not he would stay by a second trial whereas incarcerated within the “hellhole” of Rikers Island.