Harvey Weinstein: He appeals against verdict in LA

After a New York appeals court overturned a rape conviction against Harvey Weinstein (72) at the end of April, the fallen film mogul has now also appealed in Los Angeles. Weinstein’s lawyers have requested that the trial be reopened on the West Coast.

Weinstein lawyers describe trial as “not fair”

In a trial that lawyers called “not fair,” Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison in California in 2022 for rape and sexual assault.

Two years earlier, he had been sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York for sexual offenses. On April 25, this sentence was overturned by New York’s highest court because a majority of the appeals judges found that women had testified in court about allegations that were not part of the indictment. The public prosecutor’s office wants to reopen the case. This could begin in the fall.

The allegations against the former film mogul in 2017 sparked the #MeToo movement, which women used to raise awareness about sexual assault, worldwide.

This is what the appeal documents say

In appeal documents from Los Angeles, quoted by “Sky News”, Weinstein’s lawyers complain, among other things, that the jury was wrongly allowed to learn about Weinstein’s conviction in New York. In addition, the jury, similar to New York, was unfairly biased by statements from women about alleged assaults for which he was not legally accused.

The jury found Harvey Weinstein guilty in 2022 on one of four counts. He was accused, among other things, of raping a woman during a film festival in Italy in 2013. According to Sky News, the woman’s legal team is “confident that Weinstein’s appeal will be rejected.”