Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to additional sex crimes charge ahead of retrial

Harvey Weinstein was arraigned on an additional sex crimes charge in a New York City courtroom Wednesday, roughly two months ahead of a retrial in the disgraced Hollywood producer’s landmark #MeToo case.

Weinstein, who arrived at the Manhattan courthouse in a wheelchair, pleaded not guilty to one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree. He is recovering from emergency heart surgery this month, and his lawyer said he takes 19 medications.

In the New York penal code, a criminal sexual act in the first degree concerns engaging in “oral sexual conduct or anal sexual conduct with another person” by “forcible compulsion.” It is a class B felony.

In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg said the charge stemmed from the alleged sexual assault of a woman in a lower Manhattan hotel sometime between April 29, 2006 and May 6, 2006.

“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein now stands indicted for an additional alleged violent sexual assault,” Bragg said. “This investigation is ongoing.”

In all, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment going back decades. The allegations inspired the #MeToo movement, a worldwide reckoning with abuses of power across entertainment and other industries. Weinstein has repeatedly denied the claims, insisting the encounters in question were consensual.

In early 2020, a jury in New York convicted Weinstein of third-degree rape against Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actor, and first-degree criminal sex act against Mimi Haley, a former “Project Runway” production assistant. (He was acquitted of two counts of predatory sexual assault and a count of first-degree rape.)

But in April, New York’s state Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 23-year prison sentence in a 4-3 decision, blasting the trial judge for allowing women to testify about allegations that were not part of the charges. The court argued the move was “highly prejudicial.”

“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the court wrote.

Weinstein’s retrial is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12. Haley’s attorney, Gloria Allred, said her client has agreed to testify against Weinstein again because “she believes that it is the right thing to do.” In a statement last week, Mann said she plans to use her “voice” against him. 

“I look forward to continuing to use it as I face Harvey again in court soon and prove that my life is valuable,” Mann said. “That, I know now, is something he will never be able to take away.”

The Manhattan district attorney’s office announced in July that it planned to retry Weinstein, and Manhattan prosecutors announced at a court hearing last week that he had been indicted on new charges.

He has remained in custody at the Rikers Island prison complex awaiting retrial, but a judge last week granted a defense request to let him stay at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan instead of being taken back to the prison’s infirmary ward.

In addition to the New York case, Weinstein was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault in a Los Angeles trial in late 2022. (The jury acquitted him of a count of sexual battery by restraint and failed to reach a verdict on three other sexual assault counts.) He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.

Weinstein’s legal team is appealing the Los Angeles verdict. In both trials, Weinstein pleaded not guilty and chose not to take the witness stand in his own defense.

In the 1990s and the 2000s, Weinstein was a titan of the movie business as a co-head of Miramax and The Weinstein Company. He styled himself as a show business kingmaker, producing seminal independent films (including “Pulp Fiction”) and distributing Oscar-winning dramas such as “The English Patient,” “Shakespeare in Love” and “The King’s Speech.”

But his reign atop Hollywood came crashing down in October 2017 after investigative journalists at The New York Times and The New Yorker published articles about allegations of serial sexual misconduct. The flood of allegations inspired other women to come forward with claims about other powerful men in entertainment, finance and other industries.