A New York City court has tentatively scheduled the retrial of former Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein on rape and sexual assault charges to begin Nov. 12.
Judge Curtis Farber said Friday that it is open on a pre-start date in September, depending on the progress of the pretrial investigation. Weinstein’s lawyers said they sought to continue as temporarily as possible.
Last week, prosecutors said they were making plans for a new trial in November and told Farber they were still actively pursuing new charges against Weinstein.
The new accusers have not been publicly identified and prosecutors must hide some evidence from public view as they prepare to empanel a new grand jury.
Arthur Aidala, Weinstein’s lawyer, said at last week’s hearing that it was unfair for prosecutors to try to bring more victims into the case after the conviction was overturned.
Weinstein, 72, has denied any wrongdoing or non-consensual sex with anyone.
Manhattan juries convicted him of rape in February 2020, but the New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction in April, ruling that Weinstein did not get a fair trial because a sentence had improperly legalized the testimony of opposing accusers whom he did not officially charge with assault. Formation
But her conviction marked a milestone for the #MeToo movement, in which women accused many men in entertainment, media, politics and other spaces of sexual misconduct.
He was convicted of third-degree rape for assaulting an aspiring actress and forcing force on a film and television production assistant in 2006. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors said one of the accusers in the case, Jessica Mann, is fit to testify again.
Last week, Floria Allred, an attorney for the current accuser, Mimi Haley, said her client did not yet know whether or not she would participate in the retrial.
Weinstein was also sentenced to 16 years of criminal conviction following another rape trial in California. The New York court’s ruling did not comply with that sentence and he did not begin serving his sentence in California.
He is being held on Rikers Island, New York, ahead of his retrial.