Harvey Weinstein Charged With Another Alleged Assault, This Time In The UK
Here we go again.
This article is more than 2 years old
Harvey Weinstein has more charges to add to his laundry list of legal battles. The latest comes from the UK, where the Crown Prosecution Service has authorized the charges of two counts of indecent assault. These charges are related to an alleged assault against a woman that allegedly took place in London in 1996.
The head of the CPS, Rosemary Ainslie, stated that they reviewed evidence collected from Metropolitan Police that led them to authorize the charges. Ainslie also mentioned that the criminal proceedings against Harvey Weinstein are still active and was careful to mention that he still would have the right to a fair trial in relation to these new charges. This recent charge authorization follows a big loss for Weinstein in court, where his original conviction was upheld after an appeal to overturn.
The appeal against his sexual assault and rape charges argued that the outcome was rigged and that Harvey Weinstein did not receive a fair trial. However, these arguments were found to be insufficient for the conviction to be overturned. The decision to uphold the original conviction was unanimous. The arguments that Weinstein’s attorneys made were that three “prior bad acts” witnesses (their words) were allowed to testify on the stand. Also, they stated that Weinstein should have been allowed to testify in his own defense, but felt that he was blocked from doing this due to his incidents of bullying and physical violence impeaching testimony. His attorneys also attempted to have Juror 11 removed because it was revealed that they were an author of a book about predatory older men. Another argument was made that the accusers lacked credibility because they were friendly with Weinstein in the years following the assaults.
However, the appellate court decided that the judge was within his rights to make the decisions he made, so the conviction of 23 years in prison was upheld. In response, Juda Engelmeyer, a spokesperson for Harvey Weinstein, said that they would be petitioning the Court of Appeals next.
Currently, Harvey Weinstein is being held in a Los Angeles correctional facility, awaiting trial for 11 additional sex crimes. The two charges from the UK would up that count to 13. Though the results of these trials have yet to be determined, Weinstein won’t be eligible for parole until 18 years from now regardless. His lawyers are attempting to argue his poor health should make him a candidate for an earlier parole. Weinstein’s legal saga began in 2017 when the New York Times released an article that revealed decades of abuse allegations against him. Weinstein is best known for being a Hollywood producer for many years and co-founding the production company Miramax with his brother. It remains to be seen if his sentence becomes more severe following the results of his upcoming court cases. If Weinstein is found guilty of any of the impending charges, it’s possible that his 23 years in prison could be extended and this his parole eligibility could be removed completely. There is a hearing on Friday to determine the trial date for the 11 impending charges.
