Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial delayed to January; he pleads not guilty at new arraignment
Harvey Weinstein's sex-crimes trial, scheduled to start in two weeks, will instead be delayed until January, as the fallen movie mogul returned to court in New York on Monday to plead not guilty at another arraignment on a new grand jury indictment in the case.
He arrived wearing a suit and tie, his hands cuffed behind his back. According to The Associated Press, Weinstein ignored a question shouted by a reporter. He was in and out of the courthouse quickly to enter his plea. Weeks before his trial was to start, prosecutors forced Weinstein and his lawyers to appear in the Manhattan courthouse for the reading ofthe new indictment, issued last week. It was the fourth in Weinstein's criminal case, according to his lead defense attorneys, Arthur Aidala and Donna Rotunno.They say the prosecution's latest moves are unprecedented and demonstrate that the government's case against Weinstein is in disarray.
After the hearing, his lawyers said they would ask the judge to dismiss the indictment, which they called a "desperate" attempt to salvage the case. "I think the case itself is weak," Rotunno said.Attorney Gloria Allred, who represents Weinstein accusers, took the side of prosecutors, telling reporters she wondered why the defense is "so afraid of having additional witnesses testify."The new trial date was set for Jan. 6. Weinstein's lawyers had argued that the defense was entitled to at least 45 days to file new pretrial motions after a new indictment, even if there were no new charges added. "This action by the prosecutor bespeaks the desperation that has engulfed their case," the lawyers told USA TODAY in a statement last week. "We have reached the point where one must be concerned that these desperate measures indicate more of a focus on obtaining a conviction at all costs than on seeking justice."There were no new charges against Weinstein; he is still accused of five sex-crimes, including rape, involving two women and dating to 2013 and 2006. He has been free on $1 million bail.The new indictment was necessary, according to prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, in order put the testimony of another woman, who says Weinstein raped her in New York in the winter of 1993-94, before a grand jury. This witness, "The Sopranos" actress Annabella Sciorra, who told her story to The New Yorker in 2017, did not testify at the earlier grand jury proceedings. Consequently, presiding Judge James Burke barred her testimony from being introduced at Weinstein's trial.Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon told the judge last week she would return to the grand jury to re-present the case toinclude Sciorra's testimony, even though her allegation against Weinstein is too old to prosecute under thestatute of limitations.
Weinstein is not being charged with raping Sciorra; nor is her testimony being used to demonstrate a pattern of alleged "prior bad acts" by Weinstein, a type of witness testimony that helped convict Bill Cosby of sex-crimes last year in Pennsylvania.Judge Burke has approved introducing some prior-bad-acts witnesses at the trial but he has so far barred public disclosure of their number and names.Instead, Sciorra's testimony is intended to help prosecutors meet their burden of provin"predatory" sexual assault – meaning that at least two women were sexually assaulted by the defendant – Aidala says. A conviction on that charge can get a defendant 25 years in prison.Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi-Orbon and attorney Arthur Aidala, one of Harvey Weinstein's lawyers, leave a hearing on July 11, 2019, in New York."The most serious charge is predatory sexual assault and in order to prove that prosecutors have to prove that it was done on at least two occasions," Aidala told USA TODAY last week. "If you have two complainants (at trial) and the jury believes only one, then they've failed to prove predatory assault...She's their 'insurance' witness."
Meanwhile, both sides are awaiting an appellate court's ruling on Weinstein's motion to move the trial out of New York City, to either Long Island or in Albany, on the grounds that intense pretrial coverage of the case makes it impossible for him to get a fair trial.On Friday, the district attorney's office filed its response to the bid to change venue, arguing that Weinstein had failed to show that an impartial jury is impossible in New York City, and failed to show that media coverage of the case was less influential on potential jurors in either Albany or Long Island.
Plus, added Assistant District Attorney Harriett Galvin, Weinstein's legal team had contributed to the media coverage the condemn, by "trying the case outside the courtroom" through repeated statements to reporters. A list of media clippings filled three pages of the filing."This motion, lacking in any solid factual or evidence.
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Harvey Weinstein in court today pleads not guilty trial starts in 2 weeks ~ Presser injustice 2 tome 4 | |
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