Yahoo Movies Harvey Weinstein “Cautiously Excited” After 2020 Rape Conviction Overturned, New Trial Ordered By NY Appeals Court; Accusers Call Ruling “Profoundly Unjust’ – Update
(Updated with statement from Weinstein spokesperson & Silence Breakers) New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on felony sex crime charges, ordering a new trial. However, that doesn’t mean the Pulp Fiction producer will be stepping out of prison any time soon.
In a 4-3 ruling (read it below), the New York Court of Appeals flipped Weinstein’s conviction, stating the judge in charge of the trial “erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.”
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“Defendant was convicted by a jury for various sexual crimes against three named complainants and, on appeal, claims that he was judged, not on the conduct for which he was indicted, but on irrelevant, prejudicial, and untested allegations of prior bad acts,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in the Appeals Court ruling of the verdict against Weinstein and his subsequent 23-year sentence on March 11, 2020.
READ THE NEW YORK APPEALS COURT RULING OVERTURNING HARVEY WEINSTEIN’S 2020 RAPE CONVICTION HERE
First charged and arrested for rape in May 2018 after detailed revelations by the New York Times in October 2017 into decades of abuse and alleged assaults by Weinstein, the producer was convicted in February 2020 on first-degree sexual assault and three years for third-degree rape, to be served consecutively. In a trial that saw Annabella Sciorra and several other women testify about alleged abuse from Weinstein, the producer was also ordered to register as a sex offender, a registration that likely will be removed based on the Appeals Court ruling this week.
“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” Judge Rivera added for the Appeals Court majority of the trial overseen over four years ago by New York Supreme Court Judge James Burke. “The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light. The synergistic effect of these errors was not harmless.”
“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said in a statement Thursday.
In a move that reeks of the sharp elbows of New York City realpolitik, James Burke was not reappointed in 2022, and is no longer a serving judge.
“We’re cautiously excited,” Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer told Deadline this morning after the ruling was made public. “He still has a long road ahead of him because of the Los Angeles case. We are studying the ramifications of the appeal right now.”
The much accused one-time mini-mogul was convicted in Los Angeles in late 2022 for another rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Years in the making, Weinstein’s New York appeal was argued before the judges by defense lawyer Arthur Aidala and prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office back in February. Along with Aidala, who was on Weinstein’s unsuccessful 2020 defense team, the producer is also represented in his appeal by retired NY Supreme Court Judge Barry Kamins and Diane Fabi Sampson of Aidala Bertuna & Kamins PC.
A lower court had previously turned down Weinstein’s request for an appeal before Janet DiFiore, the chief judge of the New York State Court of Appeals, ruled in August 2022 to grant the request
After such a close vote on the Appeals Court now, the dissenting opinion offers a view into how pitched things must have been behind closed doors for the judges.
Calling out Rivera and the other three judges in the majority for “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative,” Judge Madeline Singas said for the minority that the court was now part of a disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”
With echos of Bill Cosby’s release from a Pennsylvania jail in June 2021 by the state’s Supreme Court, Judge Singas went on to say, “the majority’s determination perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability.” She adds: “After today’s holding, juries will remain in the dark about, and defendants will be insulated from, past criminal acts, even after putting intent at issue by claiming consent. Ultimately, the road to holding defendants accountable for sexual assault has become significantly more difficult.”
Though the now 72-year old Weinstein made a public apology for decades of misconduct soon after the explosive NYT expose in October 2017, the Miramax co-founder has always insisted on his innocence, and maintained that all the sex he engaged in was consensual – even when dozens of women have insisted otherwise.
Several of those individuals expressed outrage and resolution Thursday as the Appeals Court ruling became public.
“The news today is not only disheartening, but it’s profoundly unjust,” said the Silence Breakers in a statement today. “But this ruling does not diminish the validity of our experiences or our truth; it’s merely a setback.”
“The man found guilty continues to serve time in a California prison,” the group that includes Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan, both of whom have detailed the vile treatment they were subjected to by Weinstein, went on to say. “When survivors everywhere broke their silence in 2017, the world changed. We continue to stand strong and advocate for that change. We will continue to fight for justice for survivors everywhere.”
Despite the ruling released today, Weinstein will remain behind bars – at least for the time being.
On December 19, 2022, after a much delayed two-month trial, an L.A. jury found Weinstein guilty on all counts in relation to Jane Doe #1, who later publicly identified herself as former model Evgeniya Chernyshova.
The counts were related to Chernyshova being raped by Weinstein in her hotel room during the 2013 L.A. Italia Film Festival. Yet, on other charges, the panel of eight men and four women could not come to a unanimous decision that Weinstein was guilty of sexual battery against Jane Doe #2. They were deadlocked on charges on Jane Doe #3 and Jane Doe #4, the latter being California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom. A deeply emotional Newsom testified in the DTLA courtroom with Weinstein seated just a few feet away.
That West Coast conviction prevents Weinstein from being immediately released as Cosby was, or even posting bail. Having been moved back from L.A. last year, Weinstein is currently incarcerated at the medium security Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
That LA verdict also looks unlikely to find itself in the same overturned position as the 2020 NYC verdict due to the differences in the respective states laws. The Golden State does permit Prior Bad Acts evidence or testimony on uncharged incidents to be introduced to into rape cases to illustrate how a defendant has tendencies to commit sex crimes. That’s exactly why four women were allowed to give testimony in Weinstein’s West Coast trial in 2022.
In the Empire State, as was shown with today’s Appeals Court ruling, the criteria is much more specific to a defendant’s motivation in their past.
In addition to the criminal trials, Weinstein is also facing a number of ongoing civil cases. Late last year, for instance, Julia Ormond sued Weinstein, CAA, and Disney in L.A. Superior Court for negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, battery and more over an alleged 1995 sexual assault by the producer. That case, like so many against Weinstein, is still making its way through the courts.
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