NEW YORK– Prosecutors are asking a Manhattan judge to combine the two sex crime cases Harvey Weinstein faces in New York this year into one trial — a move opposed by lawyers for the disgraced movie mogul.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office argued in court filings released Friday that the cases have significant overlap as they involve similar criminal statutes, witnesses, expert testimony and exhibits.
They say separate trials would be “extremely inefficient and burdensome” and would waste legal resources.
“There is a strong public interest in consolidating these charges for trial because separate trials would require duplicative, lengthy and expensive proceedings that would unnecessarily consume legal and party resources,” the agency wrote in its filings.
Weinstein is awaiting a new trial on two counts of sexual harassment landmark #MeToo case after the state’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction earlier this year.
He also pleaded not guilty last month to a new charge of sex crimes in which prosecutors say he forced oral sex on a woman at a Manhattan hotel in the spring of 2006.
Weinstein’s lawyers argued in court filings filed earlier this month that the cases should remain separate.
They said prosecutors are seeking to “expand the scope” of the court-ordered new trial and turn it into “an entirely new proceeding” by including the new charges.
“Having once deprived the Defendant of a fair trial, the People are brazenly — and even brazenly — attempting to do so again by sneaking an additional indictment into the case for the improper purpose of damaging the credibility of the Complainant in the 2024 indictment strengthen,” said Weinstein’s lawyers. wrote.
A judge is expected to hear the arguments at a hearing later this month.
Weinstein, who has been in custody since his conviction, was also in custody convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022, although his lawyers have appealed.
The 72-year-old co-founded film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company and produced films such as ‘Shakespeare in Love’ and ‘The Crying Game’.
Manhattan prosecutors have laid out in their filings some of their plans for the upcoming retrial, which was set to start on November 12.
They said they plan to call 12 to 15 witnesses to testify on issues relevant to both the new and old charges, including the victims and corroborating witnesses.
Prosecutors said they will also call on experts with knowledge of Weinstein’s “status and influence in the entertainment industry” to “assess the power imbalance” between the once-powerful producer and the victims, many of whom worked in the entertainment industry.
They also expect testimony from a photographer who can corroborate the victims’ testimony about “distinctive features” of Weinstein’s body, something that was also highlighted during his previous trial.
Weinstein’s lawyers, meanwhile, complained that prosecutors had long known about the allegations in the latest criminal complaint but had “kept this case in their back pockets for years.”
They said Bragg’s office had been in contact with the last accuser dating back to the original Weinstein trial and that she had changed her stories about her interactions with Weinstein over the years.
Lindsay Goldbrum, an attorney representing the woman, did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
She has previously said the woman never made her accusation public and did not wish to be identified at this time.
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Succeed Philip Marcelo twitter.com/philmarcelo.