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WARNING: This article may concern those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone who has.
Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is expected to return to court on Tuesday for his third trial in New York on allegations of rape and sexual harassment.
Alongside his brother Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein ran the Miramax production company for two and a half decades, earning a reputation as an award-season tastemaker and ruthless operations manager. But following the 2017 #MeToo movement, more women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct.
Weinstein was fired from his Weinstein Company as the allegations were made public in stories in the New York Times and The New Yorker, was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences shortly thereafter and was charged with a crime in 2018.
He was first convicted in 2020 and has been in prison since then. He has repeatedly and consistently denied any illegal conduct and said all interactions were consensual – although he did not personally testify at any of his trials.
In the time since his first conviction, a series of appeals and retrials have led to a series of court appearances – leading up to Tuesday’s hearing. His first charge in 2020 was for third-degree rape and first-degree sexual assault involving hair stylist and actress Jessica Mann and assistant producer and producer Miriam Haley, respectively. He was found guilty of three crimes including sexual harassment. Both Mann and Haley agreed to be called publicly.
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison following his conviction last month for rape and sexual assault.
He was sentenced to 23 years in prison, which he began serving at Rikers Island that year – while facing rape and sexual assault charges in Los Angeles.
He was convicted of these crimes in Los Angeles in 2022, receiving a 16-year sentence the following year. The sentence is scheduled to be served after he completes his term in New York.
But in 2024, a New York appeals court overturned his 2020 conviction citing “serious errors” in the way the trial judge allowed testimony from prosecutors who were not directly connected to the charges against him.
“No person accused of wrongdoing may be convicted on the basis of evidence of uncharged crimes that serves only to establish that the defendant is predisposed to criminal behavior,” they wrote in their findings, referring to New York’s “Molineux Rule,” which was a key point of contention from the beginning of the case.
In a subsequent trial in 2025, the charges related to Haley were upheld, but the third-degree rape charge related to Mann resulted in a hung jury. In that case, the judge issued a mistrial after the jury foreman refused to return for further deliberations, saying the other juror was being bullied and intimidated.
Young, old complainers
Mann testified that she had a consensual, long-term relationship with Weinstein, who was married at the time. But when he cornered her in a Manhattan hotel room where she was staying for a weekend in 2013, she protested, “I don’t want to do this,” she told jurors.
He said he continued to try and search for her until he “just gave up.”
A third accuser – model-turned-psychiatrist Kaja Sokola, who agreed to remain anonymous – was added to the 2025 case and also accused of sexual abuse. Weinstein was acquitted of that charge.
When opening statements begin Tuesday, it will be the first time Mann’s charges against Weinstein have been heard. Weinstein is appealing the Los Angeles decision and is expected to appeal the New York case involving Haley. It carries a penalty of up to 25 years in prison; no sentencing date has been set. The retrial is expected to last more than a month.
Jury selection for the upcoming trial began on April 14. Asked about the length of the trial and whether it would be possible to be fair and impartial in the highly publicized case, more than 80 people asked to be released during the preliminary examination.
In a surprise move before jury selection began, prosecutors said they had new evidence – a speech Weinstein allegedly made to a magistrate six years ago.
According to Manhattan District Attorney Candace White, the officer told prosecutors last week that he was present during Weinstein’s February 2020 sexual assault conviction and heard Weinstein say: “If you had seen these girls, you would have done the same thing.”
Weinstein’s attorneys urged Judge Curtis Farber to withhold any mention of the upcoming trial.
“This sounds ridiculous,” said defense attorney Marc Agnifilo, who also argued that it was too late.
Agnifilo and his colleagues entered the case in February, when Weinstein’s longtime attorney Arthur Aidala withdrew from the case to focus on the former studio executive’s complaints and public affairs.
In this case, rape is a misdemeanor punishable by up to four years in prison. Weinstein, 73, has been working longer than that.
Weinstein has various health issues and uses a wheelchair. Since his sentencing in 2020, he has spent time at Bellevue Hospital, been diagnosed with cancer and had emergency heart surgery.
He told a judge in January that his “mental state is deteriorating” at New York’s notorious Rikers Island prison.
If you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911. For support in your area, you can check crisis lines and local services by using Completes the Violence Association of Canada database.
