SLEAZE BAACK!
NY appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes conviction
In a stunning 4-3 ruling, the New York state Court of Appeals yesterday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction and ordered a new trial. Weinstein, 72 — whose downfall launched the #MeToo movement — was originally found guilty of the crimes in 2020 and sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction was overturned by New York’s highest court Thursday — a stunning decision that the disgraced Hollywood mogul now plans on using to get his California rap overturned, his lawyer told The Post.
In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals ordered a new trial for the 72-year-old producer, slamming Manhattan Supreme Court Judge James Burke for “erroneously” allowing three additional women to testify in his 2020 trial, when their allegations were not charged in the case.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, however, did not definitively say whether it would try him a second time.
“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” a spokesperson for DA Alvin Bragg said.
The Court of Appeals said Burke’s mistake was bad enough that it invalidated the verdict finding Weinstein guilty of sexually assaulting former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haleyi in 2006 and raping hairstylist Jessica Mann in 2013.
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the appeals court said.
Weinstein learned of the ruling from a news clipping Thursday at the upstate Mohawk Correctional Facility, where he was serving a 23year-sentence.
“He said, ‘thank you’ more times than I can count,” his attorney Arthur Aidala told reporters.
‘Optimistic’ on Cali.
Weinstein will not be sprung from jail anytime soon, however, as he’s serving a 16-year sentence on his Los Angeles conviction for the rape of model Evgeniya Chernyshova at a 2013 film festival.
One of Weinstein’s attorneys, Jennifer Bonjean, said the shock ruling could tip the California conviction in his favor.
“That jury was under the assumption that Mr. Weinstein had been fairly convicted in New York, and that didn’t turn out to be true,” Bonjean told The Post. “So I’m very optimistic about the California case.”
He will now undergo a bail hearing in New York to see if he will continue to be held in the Empire State.
Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said the filmmaker and his team were “optimistic and excited” about the looming retrial.
Aidala said it was unfair for trial judge Burke to allow the additional women to testify in the 2020 case, and he touted the high court’s ruling as “a great day for America.”
“What the highest court said today is, ‘No one is above the law, but no one is below the law either,’ ” Aidala said.
Michael Bachner, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan DA’s Office, said he wasn’t surprised by the court’s decision, characterizing Burke’s rulings to let the other women testify as “too extreme.”
Bachner warned that judges need to balance cases like Weinstein’s in a just manner and avoid “bending over backwards to allow the prosecution and victims’ story to be told in a manner that impacts a defendant’s right to be fairly tried.”