Harvey Weinstein’s New York rape conviction was overturned by the state’s highest court Thursday — which ordered that the disgraced Hollywood mogul should face a new trial.
In a 4-3 ruling, the New York State Court of Appeals found that a Manhattan judge “erroneously” allowed testimony from three women whose allegations weren’t connected to the case.
The trial judge also “compounded that error” by ruling that Weinstein, if he chose to testify, could be grilled on the witness stand “about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”
“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the appeals court said.
Weinstein was separately sentenced in February 2023 to 16 years in prison in a Los Angeles criminal case after a California jury convicted him of raping an Italian model, who testified that he threw himself onto her after appearing uninvited outside her hotel room during an Italian film festival there in 2013.
That conviction still stands.
Reps for Weinstein and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
[Source: New York Post]