NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan prosecutors informed a choose Wednesday they’re evaluating extra claims of sexual misconduct made in opposition to Harvey Weinstein and will doubtlessly search a brand new indictment in opposition to him earlier than his scheduled retrial on rape and sexual assault prices.
Assistant District Lawyer Nicole Blumberg stated throughout a court docket listening to that further folks have come ahead with assault claims and prosecutors are at present assessing which fall underneath the statute of limitations.
She stated some potential survivors that weren’t able to step ahead throughout Weinstein’s first New York trial might now be keen to testify.
When requested by Decide Curtis Farber whether or not there was a chance of prosecutors submitting a brand new indictment, Blumberg replied: “Sure, your honor.”
Blumberg stated prosecutors could be in a greater place to replace the court docket on the path of the case on the finish of June.
Farber set the subsequent listening to date for July 9. The retrial on the rape cost is tentatively scheduled for a while after Labor Day.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, informed reporters exterior the courthouse after the listening to that his consumer was assured no further accusers could be discovered to bolster the prosecution’s case.
“He is aware of he’s by no means executed something like this,” Aidala stated of Weinstein.
Weinstein, showing in the identical New York Metropolis courthouse the place former President Donald Trump is on trial, entered the court docket in a wheelchair, as he has throughout different latest court docket hearings since his 2020 conviction was tossed out.
Weinstein has suffered from medical issues all through his time in jail, his attorneys have stated. He’s at present on the metropolis’s Rikers Island jail advanced.
Earlier within the listening to, Farber addressed a letter from prosecutors final week requesting the court docket to remind Weinstein’s attorneys to not talk about or disparage potential witnesses in public forward of the retrial.
Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s workplace argues that Aidala made statements earlier this month that have been meant to intimidate Miriam Haley, a former TV and movie manufacturing assistant who Weinstein was convicted of sexually assaulting.
Aidala, Weinstein’s lawyer, apologized to the choose, saying he didn’t intend to intimidate anybody.
However he stated his consumer can also be entitled to a “vigorous protection,” and that it’s the protection’s place that “lies have been informed on the final trial, and can be informed at this one.”
Aidala argued attorneys for Weinstein’s accusers have been holding press conferences criticizing Weinstein all through his authorized ordeal.
“Who will get to face up for Harvey Weinstein?” he requested in court docket. “Who will get to be his voice?”
Farber, in response, directed either side to “chorus from pandering to the press,” saying the case will “not be determined within the court docket of public opinion” however within the court docket of justice.
Haley didn’t attend Wednesday’s listening to and has expressed reluctance about going by the trauma of testifying once more.
Her lawyer Gloria Allred stated exterior the courthouse that her consumer hasn’t decided but about whether or not she’ll take part within the retrial.
However Allred referred to as on Aidala to apologize to Haley for the “unwarranted, vicious and false” assault on her, made within the courtroom earlier Wednesday. Aidala declined, chatting with reporters later.
Talking exterior of court docket on Could 1, Aidala stated Haley lied to the jury about her motive in coming ahead and that his group deliberate an aggressive cross-examination on the problem “if she dares to return and present her face right here.”
Weinstein’s authentic trial was held in the identical courtroom the place Trump is on trial now, however the two males have been unlikely to stumble upon one another. Weinstein is in custody and was delivered to and from the courtroom underneath guard. He appeared in a courtroom on a distinct flooring than the place Trump is at present on trial.
At his 2020 trial, Weinstein was convicted of raping Jessica Mann, an aspiring actor, and of sexually assaulting Haley. However final month New York’s highest court docket threw out these convictions after figuring out that the trial choose unfairly allowed testimony in opposition to him based mostly on allegations from different ladies that weren’t a part of the case. Weinstein, 72, has maintained that any sexual exercise was consensual.
The Related Press doesn’t typically determine folks alleging sexual assault except they consent to be named, as each Haley and Mann have.
The New York ruling reopened a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by highly effective figures. The #MeToo period started in 2017 with a flood of allegations in opposition to Weinstein.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York, was additionally convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of one other rape and continues to be sentenced to 16 years in jail in California.
Observe Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.