Fallen American film mogul Harvey Weinstein is retried from Tuesday in New York in a new rape trial, after a previous jury failed to reach a verdict in June.
An acquittal, however, would not allow the release of the founder of Miramax studios, 74, imprisoned in connection with other cases.
This new trial focuses on the 2013 rape accusation of aspiring actress Jessica Mann.
In June in New York, tensions during the jury’s deliberations led the judge to declare this procedure void, so that it could be retried.
Harvey Weinstein “remains hopeful and expects a fair procedure where the facts will exonerate him,” commented his spokesperson Juda Engelmayer to AFP.
For this new legal meeting, the former American producer has reshuffled his team of lawyers, enlisting the services of Jacob Kaplan and Marc Agnifilo. Their clients include Sean “Diddy” Combs, in his sex trafficking trial, and Luigi Mangione, accused of murdering an insurance boss.
The man in declining health, who now uses a wheelchair, worries that he will not be able to “last long” in the infamous Rikers Island prison, where he is being held as part of his New York trials.
Most of the time placed in solitary confinement, he told “The Hollywood Reporter” magazine in early March that he was “constantly threatened and made fun of.”
He notably claims to have been hit “violently in the face” while he was waiting to make a phone call. “I fell to the ground, I was bleeding everywhere. I was very seriously injured,” added the man who continues to proclaim his innocence.
Calls
The trial which opens Tuesday does not erase two verdicts rendered in June, which Harvey Weinstein appealed.
He was convicted of sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley, who was forced to undergo cunnilingus in 2006, and acquitted of a similar alleged sexual assault that same year on Polish model Kaja Sokola.
He had already been behind bars since February 2020.
Sentenced in 2023 in California to 16 years in prison for the rape of a European actress more than ten years ago, the producer of “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love” also appealed. A hearing is set for April 23.
More than 80 women have accused the former movie mogul of sexual violence since 2017.
His first conviction, to 23 years in prison for the facts concerning Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann, dates back to 2020 in New York, at the end of a trial which symbolized a victory for the #MeToo movement.
But an appeals court overturned this verdict in 2024 for procedural reasons.
