https://www.wsj.com/articles/harvey-weinstein-appeals-sex-crime-conviction-requests-new-trial-11617639453
Harvey Weinstein Appeals Sex-Crime Conviction, Requests New Trial
The 69-year-old former Hollywood producer is serving a 23-year sentence in New York
Harvey Weinstein arriving at Manhattan Criminal Court on Feb. 24, 2020, the day he was found guilty of two felony sex crimes.
Photo: angela weiss/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images
Deanna Paul
@thedeannapaul
deanna.paul@wsj.com
Updated April 5, 2021 1:01 pm ET
Harvey Weinstein's lawyers asked a New York appeals court to grant him a new trial, arguing that the Manhattan judge who oversaw the former Hollywood producer's conviction "woefully neglected" the obligation to ensure a fair trial.
Mr. Weinstein, now 69 years old, has maintained his innocence since a jury found him guilty in February 2020 of two felony sex crimes. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. The conviction and sentencing were viewed as a high-profile victory for the #MeToo movement, which aims to highlight pervasive sexual harassment and misconduct, especially in the workplace.
In a 166-page appeal, Mr. Weinstein's lawyers raised seven points, including that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke shouldn't have permitted testimony from four women whose sexual allegations hadn't resulted in criminal charges. Judge Burke had ruled that their allegations were admissible under New York law to help rebut Mr. Weinstein's expected defense that all the sexual encounters were consensual.
The defense said that these women's experiences weren't relevant to consent in the charged incidents and "merely depicted Weinstein as loathsome."
In its filing, Mr. Weinstein's legal team said his sentence was excessive, calling it "not merely life imprisonment, but a death sentence."
"With a year behind us and emotions subsided, the transcript of the case confirms what we always believed: that Mr. Weinstein did not receive a fair trial," said Arthur Aidala, one of Mr. Weinstein's attorneys and a lawyer at Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, P.C. "We have the utmost confidence that the Appellate Division will correct these mistakes and send this case back before a different judge."
On Monday, a spokesman from the Manhattan district attorney's office said: "We will respond in our brief to the court."
Judge Burke should have removed for bias a juror who was untruthful with lawyers during jury selection, Mr. Weinstein's attorneys said. The juror initially denied that her forthcoming book chronicled relationships between young women and "predatory older men," despite her website describing the novel that way. Judge Burke questioned the woman and decided he was going to take her at her word about the focus of the book.
Mr. Weinstein's attorneys also argued that Judge Burke undercut them at numerous junctures from developing a defense.
Harvey Weinstein's Trial and Conviction
Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 23 Years (March 12, 2020)
Harvey Weinstein Convicted of Some Sex Crimes, Acquitted of Others (Feb. 24, 2020)
Missing From Harvey Weinstein Prosecution: Police Witnesses (Feb. 17, 2020)
Harvey Weinstein Attorneys Paving Way for Possible Appeal (Feb. 6, 2020)
Weinstein Jurors Asked to Set Aside #MeToo Emotions (Jan. 17, 2020)
The judge, they said, should have permitted them to call an expert witness who would have rebutted a psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution that "women do not falsely report rape and that their memories of rape do not fade over time." Instead, the judge declined to allow defense experts to cover topics that he said were "generally accepted within the relevant scientific community." This testimony lent Mr. Weinstein's accusers an improper veneer of credibility, according to the filing.
Mr. Weinstein's lawyers said Judge Burke also prevented Mr. Weinstein from calling to testify a New York City police detective who had been directly involved in the investigation and interviewed a woman who prosecutors said may have lied about being sexually assaulted by Mr. Weinstein.
The judge had said there wasn't enough of a connection between the detective's work and the charges ultimately brought against Mr. Weinstein to require his testimony.
"These examples demonstrate the trial court's unwillingness to permit the defendant to present any defense to the jury, while permitting the prosecution to develop a theory of the case that was based on uncharged, salacious allegations and improper expert testimony," the appeal said.
Finally, the lawyers said Judge Burke shouldn't have allowed jurors to deliberate on a third-degree rape charge, stemming from a 2013 incident.
Mr. Weinstein was acquitted of the most severe charges, which carried a possible life sentence—two counts of predatory sexual assault for the alleged rape of former "Sopranos" star Annabella Sciorra in the early 1990s. Thursday's filing also criticized the judge for admitting evidence of Ms. Sciorra's decades-old first-degree rape accusation to support the predatory sexual assault charges.
Mr. Weinstein still faces criminal prosecution in California for sex crimes dating back more than a decade. Los Angeles prosecutors announced charges on Jan. 6, 2020, the day that his criminal trial on similar accusations opened in New York.
Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual act following a six-week trial. Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance called the conviction "the new landscape for survivors of sexual assault." Weinstein has denied all allegations of nonconsensual sex. Photo: Peter Foley/Bloomberg News (Video from 2/24/20)
Write to Deanna Paul at deanna.paul@wsj.com
Appeared in the April 6, 2021, print edition as 'Weinstein Asks Court for New Trial.'
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