By Michael R. Sisak and Jennifer Peltz, Associated Press
New York (AP) – Five years after Harvey Weinstein’s #MeToo original trial delivered a burning calculation for one of the most powerful personalities in Hollywood, the ex -studio is again tried after a court of appeal withdrew the void.
Opening declarations are set for Wednesday in a trial that could take six weeks.
This happens in the same Manhattan courthouse as his first trial, and two accusers who testified should then come back.
But the new Weinstein trial takes place at a cultural moment different from that of the first, which occurred at the height of the #MeToo movement. And with the accusations which are reinvested, he faces an additional allegation of a woman who was not involved in the first case.
The jury has seven women and five men – unlike the panel of seven men and five women who condemned it in 2020 – and there is a different judge.
The #MeToo movement, which exploded in 2017 with allegations against Weinstein, also evolved and refused.
At the beginning of the first Weinstein trial, songs of “rapist” could be heard outdoors outside.
TV trucks bordered the street and the journalists line up for hours to get a seat in the crowded courtroom. His lawyers have criticized the “carnival atmosphere” and fought without success to move the Manhattan trial.
This time, however, over five days of selection of the jury, there was none of this.
These realities, associated with the decision of the New York Court of Appeal, which canceled its conviction in 2020 and its 23 -year prison sentence – because the judge authorized the testimonies on the allegations of which Weinstein was not accused – everything, of the legal strategy of feedback to the atmosphere.
Weinstein, 73, is taking over a criminal sex accusation for having pretended to have made oral sex on a film and television production assistant, Miriam Haley, in 2006 and an accusation of rape in the third degree for having allegedly assaulted a budding actor, Jessica Mann, in a room of the Manhattan hotel in 2013.
Weinstein also faces a criminal sex accusation for having allegedly forced oral sex on a different woman in a Manhattan hotel in 2006. Prosecutors said that the woman, who had not been appointed publicly, presented herself a few days before her first trial but was not part of this case. They said they had reviewed his allegations when his conviction had been rejected.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people alleging sexual assault unless it consented to be named, as Haley and Mann did.
Weinstein pleaded not guilty and denies having raped or sexually assaulted anyone. His acquittals on the two most serious accusations during his trial in 2020 – predatory sexual assault and first degree – are still standing.
Lindsay Goldbrum, an unnamed lawyer, said the new Weinstein trial marks a “pivotal moment of the fight for responsibility in cases of sexual abuse” and a “signal to other survivors that the system catches up – and that it is worth expressing even when the chances seem reckless.”
This time, the Manhattan District Prosecutor’s Office continues Weinstein through its division of special victims, which specializes in such cases, after the Homicide veterans led the 2020 version. At the same time, Weinstein added several lawyers to his defense team – including Jennifer Bonjean, who participates in his conviction in rape in 2022 Angeles. She helped Bill Cosby overthrow her conviction and defend R. Kelly in her case of sexual crimes.
“This trial will not be everything about #MeToo. It will be the facts of what happened,” Weinstein’s principal lawyer, Arthur Aidala, recently said. “And that’s a big problem. And that’s how it’s supposed to be.”
But there has already been a question of #MeToo. A prosecutor asked potential jurors if they had heard of the movement. Most said they had done it, but that it wouldn’t affect them anyway.
Others have gone further.
A woman estimated that “not enough was done” following #MeToo. A man explained that he had negative feelings on this subject because his secondary classmates had been falsely accused of sexual assault.
Another man said he had seen #MeToo as other social movements: “It’s a pendulum. It swings in a way, then in the other direction, then he settles down.”
None of them are on the jury.
Originally published:
California Daily Newspapers
