A New York Court has overturned the 2020 rape conviction of disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. His conviction in California, however, still stands.
In a 4-3 decision, an appeals court found that the judge had acted wrongly in allowing prosecutors to admit “testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes.” Judge Jenny Rivera labeled it an “egregious” mistake, and called for a new trial to be held.
“… [T]hat testimony served no material non-propensity purpose,” the court said in its decision. “The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light.”
Judge Madeline Singas, one of the dissenters, wrote a scathing opinion. The judges who voted with the majority, she said, were “whitewashing the facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative.” She further said, “This Court has continued a disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”
Weinstein’s lawyers have also been pursuing an appeal for his conviction in California, and hope that the New York decision could strengthen the argument for that conviction to be overturned.
Arthur Aidala, one of Weinstein’s lawyers, openly celebrated the ruling, calling it a “great day” for the country.
Jennifer Bonjean, another of his lawyers, said the New York ruling directly impacts the California case. “A jury was told in California that he was convicted in another state for rape … Turns out he shouldn’t have been convicted, and it wasn’t a fair conviction,” she said. “It interfered with his presumption of innocence in a significant way in California.”
Weinstein was a long-time open supporter and donor of Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion chain, which is known to have aided sexual abusers, and has covered up sex trafficking and child abuse. As Live Action’s Aiding Abusers investigation found, Planned Parenthood regularly covered up these crimes, to the benefit of the men who committed them. Pressuring women in the entertainment industry into abortion is also something incredibly common in Hollywood, where Weinstein was highly influential. He is seen in the photo below surrounded by Hillary Clinton, Meryl Streep, and many others at a Planned Parenthood anniversary celebration:
Harvey Weinstein, Hillary Clinton and Meryl Streep (Photo by Clint Spaulding/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Survivors of Weinstein’s abuse reacted with shock to the news. “Texting with other survivors, we’re all saying ‘our hands were shaking so much,'” said Louise Godbold, who claimed Weinstein assaulted her twice in 1991. “All of the fear and the panic and the confusion from the original trauma comes back, and before you even have time to compose a thought, it’s your body that’s reacting.”
Caitlin Dulany, who said Weinstein sexually assaulted her during the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, added, “I think I’m still in a little shock. I think later on a lot of the deep sadness will come through.”
Douglas H. Wigdor, a lawyer who represented eight Weinstein accusers, slammed the decision, pointing out that it will cause further trauma to the victims, who will be forced to testify again in another trial.
“Courts routinely admit evidence of other uncharged acts where they assist juries in understanding issues concerning the intent, modus operandi or scheme of the defendant,” he pointed out. “It was definitely re-traumatizing for them to have to go through the trial. And for any of them to have to go back on the witness stand… it’s just unconscionable that these women will have to go through the whole thing again if there’s a new trial.”
