By Johan Ahlander
NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 sex crimes conviction in the case that helped create the #MeToo movement.
In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said the trial judge made a serious error by letting prosecutors present testimony from women claiming Weinstein assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges against him.
The court also said the trial judge compounded the error by allowing Weinstein to be cross-examined in a way that presented him in a “highly prejudicial” light.
“It is an abuse of the judge’s discretion to allow unverified allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys the character of an accused but sheds no light on his credibility on the basis of criminal charges,” Justice Jenny Rivera wrote on behalf of the majority.
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” she added.
A dissenting judge, Madeline Singas, said the result “perpetuates outdated notions of sexual violence and allows predators to escape accountability.”
Weinstein, 72, is serving a 23-year prison sentence, after being convicted in February 2020 of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006 and raping an aspiring actress in 2013.
It will be up to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose predecessor Cyrus Vance brought the case, to decide what to do next.
“We will do everything in our power to retry this case and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson for Bragg, said in an email.
Bragg’s office is also in the middle of a secret criminal trial against former US President Donald Trump.
Weinstein’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It was not immediately clear how the decision would affect Weinstein, who is serving his sentence in upstate New York.
Although he has not been retried, he still faces a separate 16-year prison sentence in California after being convicted there last year for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.
Weinstein’s initial conviction was seen as a milestone for #MeToo, in which women have accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other areas of sexual misconduct.
“Today’s ruling is a major step backwards in holding accountable those responsible for acts of sexual violence,” said Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer who represented eight of Weinstein’s accusers. “This will require victims to go through yet another trial.”
Weinstein co-founded the Miramax film studio, whose hit films include “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.” His own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Brendan Pierson in New York, and Susan Heavey in Washington; editing by Paul Grant and Jonathan Oatis)
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