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 probably cost him with as much as three extra intercourse assaults.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service, which licensed two prices of indecent assault in opposition to Weinstein in 2022, introduced Thursday that it determined to discontinue the proceedings as a result of there was “now not a practical prospect of conviction.’’
“We have now defined our choice to all events,’’ the CPS mentioned in a press release. ’’We might all the time encourage any potential victims of sexual assault to return 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 lawyer’s workplace in New York has begun presenting proof to a grand jury of as much as three beforehand uncharged allegations in opposition to 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 lengthen past that. Prosecutors mentioned they’d search to mix any new prices with ones beforehand introduced in opposition to Weinstein in order that they might 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 in opposition to 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 embrace alleged sexual assaults on the Tribeca Grand Resort, now often known as the Roxy Resort, 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.
Choose Curtis Farber elicited the small print as Weinstein’s attorneys weighed probably having his testify earlier than the grand jury, which they mentioned he’d wished to do. Weinstein was not current on the convention.
Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala mentioned Thursday that he’s determined in opposition to testifying, citing a scarcity of enough details about the brand new allegations. He criticized prosecutors for in search of so as to add extra accusers to the case fairly than merely making an attempt Weinstein’s unique indictment once more.
“The case was overturned in April and so they spent six months making an attempt to dig up somebody to return 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 grew to become essentially the most outstanding 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 have been investigating a number of allegations of sexual assault that reportedly occurred between the Eighties and 2015.
In June 2022, the Crown Prosecution Service mentioned it had licensed London’s Metropolitan Police Service to file two prices of indecent assault in opposition to 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 international locations, 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 convey new sexual assault prices in opposition to him and have been actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan throughout 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 can 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 individuals in Hollywood, producing such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love.”
© 2024 The Canadian Press
