Spared from prosecution in Britain on Thursday, Harvey Weinstein now faces the prospect of a brand new indictment in New York, the place prosecutors retrying the disgraced film mogul’s rape case are taking steps to doubtlessly cost him with as much as three extra intercourse assaults.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, which approved two prices of indecent assault towards Weinstein in 2022, introduced Thursday that it determined to discontinue the proceedings as a result of there was “now not a sensible prospect of conviction.’’
“We’ve got defined our choice to all events,’’ the CPS mentioned in an announcement. ’’We might all the time encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to come back ahead and report back to police, and we’ll prosecute wherever our authorized take a look at is met.”
On the identical time, the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace in New York has begun presenting proof to a grand jury of as much as three beforehand uncharged allegations towards Weinstein -– two sexual assaults within the mid-2000s and one other sexual assault in 2016.
The New York grand jury’s time period expires Friday, and a vote on an indictment may occur by the tip of the week, although it’s doable the method may prolong past that. Prosecutors mentioned they’d search to mix any new prices with ones beforehand introduced towards Weinstein in order that they could possibly be tried collectively.
In April, New York’s prime court docket overturned Weinstein’s rape and sexual assault convictions and ordered a brand new trial. The state’s Courtroom of Appeals discovered that the decide within the 2020 trial unfairly allowed testimony from girls whose claims towards Weinstein weren’t a part of the case.
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Prosecutors shared some details about the extra allegations that the grand jury is weighing at a court docket convention on Tuesday.
They embody alleged sexual assaults on the Tribeca Grand Lodge, now generally known as the Roxy Lodge, and in a Decrease Manhattan residential constructing between late 2005 and mid-2006, and an alleged sexual assault at a Tribeca resort in Could 2016.
Decide Curtis Farber elicited the small print as Weinstein’s legal professionals weighed doubtlessly having him testify earlier than the grand jury, which they mentioned he’d wished to do. Weinstein was not current on the convention.
Protection lawyer Arthur Aidala mentioned Thursday that he’s determined towards Weinstein testifying, citing an absence of adequate details about the brand new allegations. He criticized prosecutors for in search of so as to add extra accusers to the case slightly than merely attempting Weinstein’s unique indictment once more.
“The case was overturned in April and so they spent six months attempting to dig up somebody to come back after him,” Aidala mentioned.
Weinstein, 72, has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anybody. He stays in custody in New York whereas awaiting a retrial in Manhattan that’s tentatively scheduled to start Nov. 12. He’s anticipated again in court docket for a pretrial listening to Sept. 12.
Weinstein turned probably the most distinguished villain of the #MeToo motion, which took root in 2017 when girls started to go public with accounts of his habits. After the revelations emerged, British police mentioned they had been investigating a number of allegations of sexual assault that reportedly came about between the Nineteen Eighties and 2015.
In June 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service mentioned it had approved London’s Metropolitan Police Service to file two prices of indecent assault towards Weinstein over an alleged incident that occurred in London in 1996. The sufferer was in her 50s on the time of the announcement.
In contrast to many different nations, Britain doesn’t have a statute of limitations for rape or sexual assault.
After Weinstein’s conviction was overturned, New York prosecutors mentioned they supposed to carry new sexual assault prices towards him and had been actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan inside the statute of limitations.
On the unique trial, Weinstein was convicted of forcibly performing oral intercourse on a TV and movie manufacturing assistant in 2006 and rape within the third diploma for an assault on an aspiring actor in 2013. These allegations will probably be a part of his retrial. Weinstein’s acquittals on prices of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape nonetheless stand.
After the retrial, Weinstein is because of begin serving a 16-year sentence in California for a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles, authorities mentioned. Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022.
Weinstein, the co-founder of Miramax and The Weinstein Firm movie studios, was as soon as one of the highly effective folks in Hollywood, producing such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
