Top NY court overturns Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction

A New York court has overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for rape, ordering a new trial in a landmark “MeToo” case.

In a 4-3 decision, the state Court of Appeals said the trial judge made a mistake by letting prosecutors introduce testimony from women who claimed that Weinstein assaulted them, even though they were not part of the charges he faced.

The appeals court also said the trial judge compounded the error by letting Weinstein be cross-examined in a way that portrayed him in a “highly prejudicial” light.

“The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial,” the court said.

Weinstein has been serving a 23-year prison sentence, after being convicted in February 2020 of sexually assaulting a former production assistant in 2006, and raping an aspiring actress in 2013.

It will now be up to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, whose predecessor Cyrus Vance brought the case, to decide whether to retry Weinstein.

Bragg’s office is separately in the midst of a criminal hush money trial against former U.S. president Donald Trump.

A spokesperson for Bragg did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Weinstein’s lawyer did not immediately respond to a similar request.

The verdict was considered a milestone for #MeToo, in which women have accused hundreds of men in entertainment, media, politics and other fields of sexual misconduct.

Weinstein co-founded the Miramax film studio, whose hit movies included “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction.” His own eponymous film studio filed for bankruptcy in March 2018.

He was separately sentenced last year in California to 16 years in prison after being convicted there for the 2013 rape of an actress in Los Angeles.

(With information from Reuters and Sky News)