Harvey Weinstein’s New York sex crimes have been overturned and headed for a new trial.
Harvey Weinstein is joining Bill Cosby by having his high-profile sex crimes case overturned by the appeals court.
“We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” the court said in the decision.
“The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”
As a result, Weinstein, 72, will receive a new trial with The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office sharing plans to retry the case. The ruling comes over six years after the film mogul was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
He remains held at Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, New York, where he is still serving out his Los Angeles sentence of 16 years in prison for rape and sexual assault charges. Weinstein has maintained his innocence and denies having any nonconsensual sex with his alleged victims.
His legal team is celebrating the latest ruling.
“We are cautiously excited and need to study the ramifications of the appeal decision,” Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said. “We always said this was an unjust trial.”
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Source: Black Enterprise
