Harvey Weinstein lawyer claims he didn’t get fair trial in latest bid to toss 2020 NY rape conviction
New York’s highest appeals court heard arguments Wednesday afternoon in disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s bid to reverse his Manhattan rape conviction nearly four years ago.
A lawyer for Weinstein, 71, argued at the state Court of Appeals that public outcry from the #MeToo movement thwarted the former studio boss’ right to a fair trial.
But the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office countered that the judge at Weinstein’s dramatic, emotional 2020 trial correctly allowed three women whose allegations were not connected to the case to testify because their statements helped explain Weinstein’s “intent” to carry out sex crimes.
The seven-judge panel peppered both Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala and the DA’s office’s Steven Wu with questions during an hour-long hearing — with one jurist saying jurors had a right to learn about Weinstein’s past abuse allegations to better understand his mindset before the encounters.
“In some sexual violence, intent is not so clear,” said Judge Madeline Singas.
“His position is, ‘Look, this is very transactional, I give them movie roles, I invite them to my hotel room, we have consensual sex,'” Singas added.
The judge added that “the jury has a right to know that when these women are put into that position, that he has done this time and time again, and he knows this isn’t a consensual situation because he knows these other women haven’t consented to that.
“Aren’t you fundamentally misunderstanding the nature of this sex assault for people that know each other?” Singas asked Aidala at another point.
The hearing centered on whether Justice James Burke unfairly allowed evidence of Weinstein’s prior “bad acts” — known as “Molineux” evidence, in a reference to a 1901 New York court ruling — to be heard during Weinstein’s trial.
New York state law has narrow restrictions for when such evidence is allowed into court. But prosecutors can bring in such information if it shows someone’s “intent” to commit a crime.
Aidala argued Wednesday that jurors did not need to hear about Weinstein’s prior behavior to know about his intent before allegedly forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi — after ripping out her tampon.
Haleyi testified at the trial, and a Manhattan jury of seven men and five women found Weinstein guilty in February 2020 of criminal sexual act in the first degree for the attack.
“What is his intent? It’s not to make a macaroni and cheese. His intent is to assault her,” said Aidala, who raised his voice at several points during the hearing. “If you believe her, his intent was despicable.”
Several of the judges questioned Wu, of the DA’s office, about whether the testimony about Weinstein’s prior behavior spoke to his intent in the alleged attacks he was charged with.
Wu defended the decision to call those witnesses because it showed a pattern of behavior explaining how women could consent to spending time with the fallen Hollywood king, but not sleeping with him.
“Many young women were willing to have certain types of relationships with him, and to appear in his hotel room, in his apartment, on his terrace alone with him, yet did not consent to sexual activity,” Wu said.
Judge Anthony Cannataro appeared receptive to Wu’s argument, and said during the late-afternoon hearing that Weinstein’s case “seems like what Molineux was made for.”
But Justice Betsy Barros, who was sitting in as a replacement judge after another judge recused themself, appeared willing to side with Aidala’s argument that Weinstein was in effect barred from testifying after the judge ruled he could be forced to answer questions about a deluge of prior “bad acts” if he took the stand.
“No one in their right mind” would testify under those conditions, Barros said.
“How is this a fair trial when you are not able to put in your side of it?” Barros added.
Weinstein did not attend the hearing, but he may have been allowed to watch a livestream from the Mohawk Correctional Facility, a medium-security state prison in upstate New York where he’s serving out a 23-year sentence.
A mid-level appellate court in June 2022 has already rejected many of the same arguments made by Weinstein’s lawyers on Wednesday.
Weinstein has been convicted of criminal sexual act in the first degree for forcibly performing oral sex on Haleyi, and rape in the third degree for an attack on hairstylist Jessica Mann.
Costume designer and producer Dawn Dunning and actresses Tarale Wulff and Lauren Marie Young all took the stand as well against Weinstein — describing abusive behavior from him that did not lead to criminal charges.
The verdict was only a partial win for prosecutors, as Weinstein was acquitted of first-degree rape and predatory sexual assault stemming from allegations from “The Sopranos” actress Annabella Sciorra, who also testified during the trial.
More than 80 women in total have come forward to describe Weinstein, the former head of movie studio Miramax, as a sexual predator.
Weinstein has insisted that the encounters were consensual and claimed at his sentencing in the Manhattan case that he had “wonderful times” with his accusers.
“I’m totally confused and I think men are confused,” he said during a rambling address delivered while six of his accusers gripped each other in the first row of the courtroom’s gallery.
Weinstein did not apologize to any of the women who testified against him — yet said he felt “remorse” in general.
“I really feel remorse of this situation,” Weinstein said from the defense table. “I feel it deeply in my heart.”
Weinstein’s lawyers have also claimed in court papers that a trial juror unfairly failed to disclose “that she was publishing a ‘highly personal’ book about the sexual predations of older men against young women.”
The judges did not say Wednesday when they expect to issue their ruling.
Weinstein was separately sentenced in February 2023 to 16 years in prison in a Los Angeles criminal case after a California jury convicted him of raping an Italian model, who testified that he threw himself onto her after appearing uninvited outside her hotel room during an Italian film festival there in 2013.
