Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced film producer who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 80 women, hobbled into a Manhattan court on Monday for the beginning of his sexual assault trial, which is expected to last more than two months.
According to the New York Times, Weinstein “is accused of forcing oral sex on a film production assistant” and raping a woman who remains unnamed. Despite numerous other allegations, prosecutors were unable to bring forth additional charges because the statute of limitations had expired, the allegations didn’t rise to the level of criminal behavior, or the “accusers were unwilling to participate” in a trial, reports the news agency.
Donna Rotunno, a lead attorney for Weinstein, told CNN on Saturday that the defense has evidence “these cases don’t rise to the level of rape.”
As Weinstein’s team of lawyers hunkers down for the beginning of the high-profile trial, Los Angeles District Attorney Jackie Lacey has announced that new sexual assault charges will be brought against Weinstein in connection with back-to-back allegations dating back almost seven years.
“We believe the evidence will show that the defendant used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then committed violent crimes against them,” Lacey announced in a press conference on Monday. “In the complaint we filed earlier today, we allege that the first sexual assault took place on February 18, 2013, in a Los Angeles hotel room. For those crimes, defendant Weinstein is charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, and sexual penetration by use of force.”
Lacey continued that Weinstein “also faces one felony account of sexual battery by restraint of another woman. We allege the second assault took place the next evening in a hotel suite in Beverly Hills. Each of these victims told at least one person about the assault in 2013. They reported the crimes to police in 2017.”
Prosecutors have requested bail for Weinstein to be set at $5 million. Although Weinstein will not appear in Los Angeles court until his ongoing New York City trial has concluded, he could spend 28 years in California state prison if convicted of the new charges.
“We continue to investigate allegations involving three other women to determine if additional criminal charges will be filed,” said Lacey.
Last month, the New York Times reported that Weinstein had reached a “tentative $25 million settlement agreement with dozens of his alleged sexual misconduct victims.” The deal doesn’t require Weinstein “to admit wrongdoing or pay anything to his accusers himself,” reports the news agency. Instead, the accusers would be paid with money from “insurance companies representing the producer’s former studio, the Weinstein Company.”
“I don’t think there’s a markedly better deal to be made,” Genie Harrison, a lawyer representing one of Weinstein’s accusers in the settlement, told the news agency. “We have really, truly done the best we can under the circumstances, and it’s important for other victims to know this, come forward and be able to get the best level of compensation we were able to get.”