New York: Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on additional sex crimes charges ahead of his retrial in New York, Manhattan prosecutors said at a hearing Thursday.
The indictment will remain under seal until Weinstein's arraignment, which is scheduled for Sept 18.
Weinstein, 72, is recovering from emergency heart surgery Monday at a Manhattan hospital and was not at Thursday's hearing. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office disclosed at a recent court hearing that prosecutors had begun presenting to a grand jury evidence of up to three additional allegations against Weinstein, dating as far back as the mid-2000s.
Prosecutors had been seeking to retry Weinstein after his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges was tossed by an appeals court earlier this year. It remains to be seen whether the new charges will be included in the retrial, as prosecutors hope, or handled as a separate case by the court.
#MeToo movement
The new charges come after prosecutors in Britain announced last week that they would no longer pursue charges of indecent assault against Weinstein, who was the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began going public with accounts of his behaviour.
The 72-year-old co-founder of the film and television production company Miramax has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual. He is next expected to appear in Manhattan court for a hearing in the case on Sept 12. His retrial is tentatively slated for November.
A jury found Weinstein sexually assaulted former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006 and raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. They are among more than 80 women who have accused him of sexual misconduct. Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for the New York case, and to 16 years in prison for the separate California case.
In that case, a Los Angeles jury found Weinstein guilty of rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object involving one woman, but acquitted him of charges relating to a second accuser.
The judge overseeing the case declared a mistrial on the counts where the jury could not reach a verdict, including the allegations made by Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The California conviction was not affected by the New York top court's decision. Weinstein has not begun serving the California sentence. Miramax's hit movies included "Shakespeare in Love" and "Pulp Fiction." Weinstein's film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018 after the allegations against him precipitated its implosion.
In the New York trial, portrayed Weinstein as a serial predator who had manipulated women with promises of career advancement in Hollywood, coaxing them to hotel rooms or private apartments and then overpowering and violently attacking them. During his sentencing hearing in Manhattan in 2020, Weinstein said he was worried about the "thousands of men who are losing due process" during the #MeToo movement.
(With inputs from agency)
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