Criminal case can go forward, N.Y. judge rules
NEW YORK — A state judge in Manhattan ruled Thursday the criminal case against Harvey Weinstein could go forward, rejecting the Hollywood producer’s arguments that errors by police and prosecutors had tainted the grand jury and the indictment should be thrown out.
The last time Weinstein appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court the same judge dismissed part of the indictment against him after it was revealed that a police detective on the case had withheld crucial evidence from prosecutors.
Since then, the criminal case against Weinstein continued to fray. His defense team released evidence in an attempt to undermine the allegations of the remaining accusers. An unidentified friend of one of the accusers challenged the woman’s account.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, filed a new motion last month asking Justice James Burke to dismiss the case because prosecutors did not share “highly exculpatory evidence.”
But just moments after Weinstein entered the courtroom Thursday morning, Burke announced that he would not dismiss the indictment against the oncepowerful producer.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment.
Weinstein was initially indicted on charges that he attacked three women, including one who said the producer raped her in 2013 at a Midtown Manhattan hotel. The woman has not been identified in court papers. He was also charged with forcing two other women to engage in oral sex with him. Lucia Evans, a marketing executive, said she was assaulted in his TriBeCa office in 2004, and Mimi Haleyi, a production assistance, said Weinstein assaulted her at his apartment in 2006.
Burke dismissed the charge related to Evans after the Manhattan district attorney’s office acknowledged that Nicholas DiGaudio, the lead detective on the case, did not disclose information from a witness who said that Evans had given her a conflicting account of the incident.