A Manhattan judge said Wednesday a new date for disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s sex crimes trial will not be set until late January, and allowed the prosecution to consolidate two cases against Weinstein—including one retrial of charges for which his conviction was overturned earlier this year—into one trial.
A judge said Wednesday he will determine a new trial date for the consolidated case against ... [+]
The retrial of two charges against Weinstein was set to begin Nov. 12, but Judge Curtis Farber said in court Wednesday the trial would be delayed and he would decide on a new trial date by Jan. 29, 2025, the Associated Press reported.
The prosecution requested the retrial be combined with one count of a criminal sexual act that Weinstein was charged with in September, saying there was “compelling public interest in avoiding lengthy, burdensome, duplicative trials that would waste party and judicial resources, further clog the court system, and burden multiple juries—benefits that defendant’s opposition does not even contest.”
The defense opposed the consolidation, saying it was a way for the prosecutors to get an “additional charge into the case for the improper purpose of bolstering the credibility of the complainant in the 2024 indictment.” Forbes has reached out to Weinstein’s lawyers for comment.
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Farber’s decision to allow the cases to be consolidated came one day after news broke that Weinstein had been diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. NBC News reported Weinstein is being treated for chronic myeloid leukemia at Rikers Island prison in New York. Weinstein’s legal team did not comment on reports of his diagnosis “out of respect for (his) privacy” and said the public discussion about his health was “troubling and unacceptable.”
Once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, Weinstein faced a surge of sexual misconduct allegations starting in 2017. Weinstein was convicted in 2020 on criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape charges, and sentenced to 23 years in prison, but the conviction was overturned in April by the New York Court of Appeals. The court found the judge erred when he allowed several women who accused Weinstein of sexual assault to testify even though they were not directly involved with the case. In that case, he was charged with five felony counts, but only convicted on two counts: sexual assault for forcing a production assistant to perform oral sex in 2006 and third-degree rape of an aspiring actress in 2013. Weinstein was also convicted in Los Angeles, but similar to the New York conviction his lawyers argued the trial was unfair and are working to get it overturned. In September, New York prosecutors announced a new charge against Weinstein—to which he pleaded not guilty—after he was indicted by a grand jury. He has faced a number of health problems while in prison, including being hospitalized in September for emergency heart surgery.