Harvey Weinstein loses bid to overturn rape conviction
Harvey Weinstein lost a bid to have his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction thrown out, according to a ruling by a New York appellate court Thursday.
In an unanimous decision, the court shot down Weinstein’s argument that he was the victim of misguided rulings by the trial judge – including one that allowed jurors to hear about allegations of misconduct for which he wasn’t charged.
“We reject defendant’s arguments, and affirm the conviction in all respects,” read the decision from the Appellate Division, First Department.
“We perceive no basis for reducing the sentence, and we have considered defendant’s remaining arguments and find them unavailing,” the decision continued.
Weinstein’s spokesman Juda Engelmayer said: “We are reviewing all of our options and will seek to petition the court appeals and beyond. We are disappointed, but not surprised.”
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg lauded the ruling, saying it upheld the “just verdict.”
“We are gratified by today’s decision, which upholds a monumental conviction that changed the way prosecutors and courts approach complex prosecutions of sexual predators,” Bragg said in a statement.
Weinstein, 70, is jailed in California while awaiting trial on separate charges that he sexually assaulted five women in Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013. He has pleaded not guilty.
The movie mogul was sentenced to 23 years in prison in March 2020 after a Manhattan jury convicted him of forcibly performing oral sex on former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi in 2006 and raping hairstylist Jessica Mann in 2013.
He was found not guilty of two counts of predatory sexual assault in connection to the alleged mid-1990s rape of actress Annabella Sciorra.
His attorneys filed an appeal with the First Department, in April 2021, arguing that Manhattan Supreme Court Justice James Burke improperly allowed testimony of Weinstein’s “prior bad acts” to come into trial.
Three women testified about uncharged sexual misconduct to bolster the prosecution’s case. Burke also admitted evidence and testimony about Weinstein’s past boorish behavior.
Additionally, Weinstein’s legal team argued Burke should have removed a juror who wrote a novel featuring predatory older men and their relationships with girls.
The appeals court rejected this argument, finding that that Weinstein “failed to establish that [the juror] harbored bias against him.”
During a December hearing, one of the judges on the five-member panel blasted prosecutors over the “incredibly prejudicial testimony” from some of the witnesses.
“Let’s inflame the jury’s heart by telling them that he beat up his brother during a meeting. I just don’t see how there is a balance there on that,” Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels had said.
The issue of “prior bad acts” was one of the arguments that Bill Cosby’s lawyers used to overturn his sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania. New York has its own set of more restrictive laws relating to this type of evidence.
Weinstein’s lawyer Barry Kamins told the appellate judges that the extra testimony went beyond what is normally accepted — and that Burke’s rulings allowed a mountain of prejudicial evidence against his client, contributing to his decision to not testify in his own defense.
“The jury was overwhelmed by such prejudicial, bad evidence,” Kamins said. “This was a trial of Harvey Weinstein’s character. The people were making him out to be a bad person.”
The First Department acknowledged that with “prior bad acts” evidence “there will be some degree of prejudice to the defendant.”
Still, the court said Burke “carefully considered” his decisions concerning this evidence – limiting the amount of witnesses who could testify about Weinstein’s alleged misconduct that wasn’t charged in the case and instructing the jury about how they should consider this evidence.
In his statement, Bragg said, “I am grateful to the brave survivors in this case for their remarkable courage and candor, as well as the jurors who dedicated their time and effort to securing a fair and just verdict.”
“Finally, I thank the numerous members of my Office, from the trial team to the appellate attorneys, who have dedicated years to securing justice in this case,” Bragg concluded.
Additional reporting by Tamar Lapin
