Harvey Weinstein Retrial Begins With Opening Statements

Harvey Weinstein’s retrial on intercourse crime expenses commenced in Manhattan with opening statements on Wednesday, April 23.

Weinstein, 73, as soon as a extremely influential Hollywood movie producer, is being retried after his 2020 conviction was overturned.

In opening statements reported by the Related Press and the BBC, prosecutors sought to painting Weinstein as a “gatekeeper” who wielded immense energy in Hollywood.

“The defendant needed their our bodies, and the extra they resisted, the extra forceful he received,” prosecutor Shannon Lucey mentioned, in accordance with the shops.

The BBC reported that prosecutors launched three girls who’ve claimed that Weinstein abused them, together with one, Kaja Sokola, a model-turned-therapist, who didn’t take part within the first trial.

Lucey advised jurors that Sokola has alleged that Weinstein forcibly carried out oral intercourse in a New York Metropolis resort in 2006, in accordance with the BBC.

The opposite two girls reportedly launched by prosecutors had been actress Jessica Mann and former manufacturing assistant Miriam Haley, who additionally testified at his first trial.

The allegations towards Weinstein had been broadly publicized on the top of the #MeToo Motion, with greater than 80 girls having accused him of sexual misconduct.

However in April 2024, the 2020 conviction was tossed after his attorneys efficiently argued that the trial choose unfairly allowed three girls whose accusations weren’t a part of the costs to testify, the AP reported.

New York prosecutors obtained a brand new indictment towards the Hollywood mogul in 2024, which included an added depend of prison intercourse act.

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Weinstein has pleaded not responsible and has lengthy denied the allegations he faces.

His 2022 conviction in California on expenses of rape and sexual assault nonetheless stands.

Beforehand, NPR reported that Weinstein had acquired remedy for bone marrow most cancers. PEOPLE reported in 2024 that he had emergency coronary heart surgical procedure at Bellevue Hospital in New York Metropolis.