Harvey Weinstein Appeals New York Rape Conviction

Harvey Weinstein appealed on Monday the rape and felony intercourse crime conviction at his New York legal trial, arguing {that a} particular juror who had written a novel about “predatory older men,” and the admission of prior dangerous acts witnesses, affected his means to have a good trial.

Weinstein was convicted final yr of a first-degree legal sexual act and third-degree rape after a months-long trial that heard the testimonies of six ladies who accused the previous Hollywood mogul of sexual assault. He was sentenced to 23 years in jail.

But in Monday’s 166-page attraction, Weinstein’s protection took concern with a juror who they claimed was dishonest throughout jury choice concerning the themes of her novel.

“Juror No. 11 was unqualified to sit as a juror at Mr. Weinstein’s trial from the start and should have been excused for cause upon defense counsel’s discovery that she had misrepresented the subject matter of the book she had authored and was publishing at the time she was serving as a juror,” the attraction mentioned.

Weinstein’s crew additionally argued that the jury was unfairly influenced by the testimonies of three prior dangerous acts witnesses — Tarale Wulff, Dawn Dunning and Lauren Young — whose accounts didn’t kind the premise of the costs.

“Weinstein’s trial was overwhelmed by excessive, random, and highly dubious prior bad act evidence, none of which shed light on disputed issues relevant to the charged offenses,” the attraction mentioned. “Because the evidence on the charged offenses was weak, the prosecution inundated the jury with copious tales of alleged misconduct (much of which was not criminal in nature) that served no legitimate evidentiary purpose but merely depicted Weinstein as loathsome.”

A spokesman for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office informed TheWrap, “We will respond in our brief to the court.”

The attraction additionally questioned the third-degree rape cost towards Weinstein, provided that the cost was filed 70 days after the statute of limitations.

Weinstein is in search of his conviction to be overturned, the third-degree rape cost dismissed as “time-barred” and a brand new trial targeted solely on the cost of a first-degree legal sexual act based mostly on an incident in 2006, when Miriam Haley, a former manufacturing assistant on the Weinstein-produced TV present “Project Runway,” mentioned that Weinstein held her down on a mattress by her wrists, pulled out her tampon and sexually assaulted her in his SoHo condo.

Weinstein nonetheless faces a separate case in Los Angeles, the place he’s charged with 11 felony counts: 4 counts of forcible rape, 4 counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one rely of sexual penetration by use of power. If convicted, he faces as much as 140 years to life in jail in California. His extradition to Los Angeles has continued to be delayed because of the pandemic, and it’s not instantly clear when proceedings might start.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.