NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� After years of , legal peril and prison, Harvey Weinstein is again going on trial on a rape charge in New York City.
Jury selection is set to start as early as Tuesday in the onetime movie mogul’s latest retrial, where jurors will weigh 鈥� for the third time 鈥� whether he raped hairstylist and actor in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
But 鈥渋t’s not going to be a mirror image of the last trial,鈥� new Weinstein lawyer Marc Agnifilo told Judge Curtis Farber last month.
This time, jurors will weigh only one charge based on one accuser, rather than the array of allegations that were aired at Weinstein鈥檚 previous trials in New York and Los Angeles. The Oscar-winning producer denies all the accusations and this winter that he had 鈥渁cted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.鈥�
The judge has indicated he might revisit some rulings about exactly what evidence gets presented about Weinstein’s and Mann’s years of interactions. And Weinstein’s recent change in attorneys could shift the trial’s tenor and tactics.
Agnifilo and his partners only in February, when longtime Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala stepped aside from the retrial to focus on the former studio boss鈥檚 appeals and civil matters. Both Aidala and Agnifilo are well-known New York defense attorneys, but their litigation styles differ. Aidala is folksy, while Agnifilo is more buttoned-up.
Weinstein wielded significant clout in the entertainment industry, having built his reputation on such critical and popular hits as 鈥淪hakespeare in Love,鈥� 鈥淧ulp Fiction鈥� and 鈥淐hocolat.鈥� He also became a .
Then a series of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against 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.
Weinstein went to trial and was convicted of some 鈥� but not all 鈥� counts in both cases. His initial New York convictions spurring a retrial last year.
The retrial verdict was mixed: Weinstein was oral sex on production assistant and producer in 2006, but he was acquitted of forcibly performing oral sex that same year on model-turned-psychotherapist . The jury didn鈥檛 decide on the rape charge involving Mann because the .
Weinstein subsequently , according to Aidala. Evidently, Weinstein ultimately rejected the idea.
Mann has testified that she had a consensual, on-and-off relationship with the then-married Weinstein. But when he cornered her in a Manhattan hotel room where she was staying on a weekend getaway, she protested, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 want to do this,鈥� she told jurors. She said he kept making advances and demands until she 鈥渏ust gave up.鈥�
Weinstein hasn鈥檛 testified at any of his trials, but his lawyers have contended that he never had non-consensual sex.
The defense claimed that Mann and his other accusers willingly entertained his sexual overtures because they wanted his help with their show-business aspirations. The women, by contrast, said Weinstein dangled his Hollywood influence to draw them into his orbit and then victimize them.
His sexual assault conviction involving Haley carries in prison; no sentencing date has been set. In this case, the yet-to-be-decided rape charge is a lower-level felony punishable by up to four years behind bars. Weinstein, 73, already has served longer than that.
Weinstein suffers from various health problems and uses a wheelchair. He in January that he’s haunted by the possibility that he might die in New York鈥檚 notorious .
鈥淢y mental state is collapsing. 鈥� My spirit is breaking,鈥� he told the judge.
Weinstein鈥檚 lawyers have argued that his New York conviction last year was poisoned by bad blood among jurors. Meanwhile, he’s appealing .
The Associated Press generally does not identify people without their permission if they say they have been sexually assaulted. Haley, Mann and Sokola agreed to be named.
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