Harvey Weinstein’s Lawyer Appeals Rape Verdict at New York’s Highest Court
15.02.2024 - 02:47
/ variety.com
Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Harvey Weinstein‘s lawyer urged the highest court in New York to overturn his conviction on Wednesday, saying that too many accusers were allowed to testify at his trial. Arthur Aidala challenged the trial judge’s ruling allowing three women to testify as “Molineux” witnesses. The women spoke about sexual assaults that were not among the charges, but did help establish a pattern of misconduct.
Had Weinstein testified in his own defense, the prosecutors also would have been allowed to raise 28 allegations of other bad acts, including that Weinstein threw a table of food at an employee and threatened to sever someone’s genitals. Aidala argued that the two rulings made it impossible for Weinstein to get a fair trial. “This is major prejudice,” Aidala said.
“It’s saying, ‘He’s a bad guy. He’s a bad guy. He’s a bad guy.'” Weinstein, the former Hollywood producer, is serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y.
He was separately convicted in Los Angeles of additional rape charges and was sentenced to 16 years in that case. In New York, a lower court rejected Weinstein’s arguments and upheld his conviction on a 5-0 vote in June 2022. Weinstein appealed to the Court of Appeals — the state’s highest court — which agreed to hear the case.
During the questioning, some of the judges raised questions about the Molineux ruling and the Sandoval ruling, which would have allowed the prosecution to attack Weinstein’s credibility if he had taken the stand. Aidala argued that Weinstein was “begging to tell his side of the story,” but that the Sandoval ruling made that too great a risk. “It’s a he-said, she-said case, and he said, ‘That’s not how it
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