Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday in New York.Steven Hirsch/The Associated Press
After years of #MeToo infamy, legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on trial on a rape charge in New York.
Jury selection started Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul’s latest retrial, where jurors will weigh – for the third time – whether he raped hairstylist and actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
It’s a more streamlined proceeding than the array of allegations that were aired at Mr. Weinstein’s previous trials in New York and Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and declared in court this winter that he had “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”
Still, the retrial is expected to last up to six weeks. Questioned about the length of the proceeding and whether they could be fair and impartial about the much-publicized case, more than 80 people asked to be excused during initial screening Tuesday morning. The day ended with no jurors chosen.
The process is scheduled to resume Wednesday with prospective jurors being questioned individually in private about their knowledge of the case and Mr. Weinstein. Wider-ranging questioning in court should follow eventually.
In a surprise move before jury selection began, prosecutors said they had a new piece of evidence – a remark that Mr. Weinstein allegedly made to a court officer six years ago.
According to Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Candace White, the officer told prosecutors last week that he was present during Mr. Weinstein’s February, 2020, sexual assault conviction – which was later overturned – and heard Mr. Weinstein say: “If you had seen these girls, you would have done the exact same thing.”
Mr. Weinstein’s lawyers urged Justice Curtis Farber to keep any mention of the supposed remark out of the upcoming retrial.
“This sounds far-fetched,” defence attorney Marc Agnifilo said, also arguing that it emerged too late.
A subject that was explored in prior trials – a claims fund for women who said Mr. Weinstein sexually mistreated them – likely won’t come up again. The defence team doesn’t intend to raise the subject, Justice Farber said.
Harvey Weinstein insists he ‘never assaulted anyone’ as he weighs guilty plea on rape charge
Mr. Agnifilo and his partners took on the case in February, when long-time Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala stepped aside from the retrial to focus on the former studio boss’ appeals and civil matters. Both Mr. Aidala and Mr. Agnifilo are well-known New York defence attorneys, but their litigation styles differ. Mr. Aidala is folksy, while Mr. Agnifilo is more buttoned-up.
Mr. Weinstein wielded significant clout in the entertainment industry, having built his reputation on such critical and popular hits as Shakespeare in Love, Pulp Fiction and Chocolat. He also became a prominent Democratic donor.
Then a series of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against Mr. Weinstein began to emerge in news media in 2017, propelling the #MeToo movement.
He was criminally charged in New York in 2018 and in Los Angeles two years later.
Mr. Weinstein went to trial and was convicted of some – but not all – counts in both cases. His initial New York convictions were overturned, spurring a retrial last year.
The retrial verdict was mixed: Mr. Weinstein was convicted of forcing oral sex on production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006, but he was acquitted of forcibly performing oral sex on model-turned-psychotherapist Kaja Sokola. The jury didn’t decide on the rape charge involving Ms. Mann because the foreperson refused to keep deliberating.
Ms. Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Mr. Weinstein. But when he cornered her in a Manhattan hotel room where she was staying on a weekend getaway, she protested, “I don’t want to do this,” she told jurors. She said he kept making advances and demands until she “just gave up.”
Mr. Weinstein hasn’t testified at any of his trials. His lawyers have contended that he never had non-consensual sex.
At his trials to date, the defence claimed that his accusers accepted his sexual overtures because they wanted his help in show business. The women said Mr. Weinstein dangled his Hollywood influence to attract and victimize them.
He’s appealing the Los Angeles verdict and is expected to appeal the New York conviction involving Ms. Haley. It carries the potential for up to 25 years in prison; no sentencing date has been set.
In this case, the rape charge is a lower-level felony punishable by up to four years behind bars. Mr. Weinstein, 73, already has served longer than that.
Mr. Weinstein has various health problems and uses a wheelchair. He told the judge in January that his “mental state is collapsing” in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail.
The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Ms. Haley, Ms. Mann and Ms. Sokola agreed to be named.