July 9 (UPI) — Disgraced former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein is expected to face new rape allegations in his retrial this fall, prosecutors say.
“A number of women came forward to indicate they were raped by the defendant in Manhattan,” Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg told a New York judge Tuesday about several other women who were not yet prepared to speak during Weinstein’s 2020 trial.
Some of the alleged “violent” and “trauma-informed” incidents that allegedly took place in Manhattan fall within the statute of limitations, prosecutors believe, who expect a trial by November, although Weinstein’s defense team is pushing for it to be sooner.
His defense alleges the prosecution is utilizing delay tactics.
“Once again we have the individual and we’re looking for a crime,” Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala said. “We’ve got the 1-800-Get-Harvey hotline.”
Weinstein, wearing a dark blue suit, was in attendance on Tuesday and brought into the courtroom by a wheelchair.
Citing a letter from a doctor, Aidala said Weinstein suffers from fluids in his heart and lungs, spinal stenosis, macular degeneration, and high blood pressure related to his diabetes and the high-carbohydrate food being served at Rikers Island in New York.
Aidala eyed a September trial date, urging the court to “move forward expeditiously” in contrast to the prosecutor’s possible November trial date.
“We’re very confident of the outcome of this trial,” Aidala said, stating his belief how Weinstein will be acquitted in New York before an appeal in California. “There is a lot of light at the end of the tunnel for Mr. Weinstein.”
In April, a New York court overturned Weinstein’s alleged 2020 rape conviction.
In that 4-3 decision, the New York Appeals Court said the judge in that case improperly allowed testimony and evidence from too many women against Weinstein that was both “irrelevant” and “prejudicial.”
Weinstein still is serving a 16-year prison sentence in California, where he was sentenced in 2023 on separate rape charges.
The 72-year-old disgraced Hollywood producer was taken to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital in April for a battery of tests days after New York’s highest court overturned his 2020 rape conviction.
The hospitalization came after Weinstein was transferred from Mohawk Correctional Facility in upstate New York to a medical ward at Rikers in New York City, where he was scheduled to appear in court a week later.
Weinstein was serving a 23-year prison sentence at Mohawk after he was found guilty of first-degree rape, a first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape.
