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A new trial for Harvey Weinstein<\/strong> might involve previously unheard accusations against the disgraced movie producer, Manhattan prosecutors said. The trial, which was tentatively scheduled to begin on November 12 during a Friday hearing, is a second attempt to prosecute Weinstein in New York following a sexual assault conviction in 2020<\/a>. That conviction was overturned earlier this year<\/a>, after an appeals court ruled that by allowing women other than those directly involved in the charges against Weinstein to testify, the trial court committed \u201cegregious errors.\u201d<\/p>\n Weinstein, who was also convicted of rape<\/a> in a separate Los Angeles trial in 2022, was sentenced to 23 years in prison in the New York case<\/a> and an additional 16 in California<\/a>, the latter to be served after his New York term ended. Initially imprisoned at New York’s Mohawk Correctional Facility, the 72-year-old remains in the Bronx’s Rikers Island as he awaits retrial.<\/p>\n More than 80 women came forward<\/a> with accusations against Harvey Weinstein as of 2017, but Weinstein’s first trial in New York centered around charges related to the alleged assault of just two separate women. Four additional women, all of whom levied similar accusations against Weinstein, were also allowed to testify, leading to the order to try the case again.<\/p>\n When the conviction was overturned, prosecutors were told that some of the evidence used in that trial could not be reused<\/a>. But Manhattan assistant district attorney Nicole Blumberg<\/strong> said in early July that prosecutors have now identified multiple new survivors of alleged assaults by Weinstein, and that they hoped to convene a grand jury to indict him.<\/p>\n \u201cIn 2020, there were women who were not ready to proceed with the legal process,\u201d Blumberg said during a July 9 hearing<\/a>. \u201cSome of those women are now ready to proceed.\u201d<\/p>\n Weinstein\u2019s lawyer Arthur Aidala<\/strong> called prosecutors’ efforts to lay bare new claims was a \u201cdelay tactic” intended to keep Weinstein in Rikers. \u201cThey have a defendant and now they\u2019re out there looking for a crime,\u201d Aidala said, calling the search for additional survivors \u201c1-800-GET-HARVEY.\u201d<\/p>\n Those potential new claims were not specified on Friday, when Weinstein returned to court for a pre-retrial hearing, the New York Times<\/em> reports<\/a>. At the hearing, Justice Curtis Farber<\/strong> of State Supreme Court said that he’d review the evidence on hand, and both sides would return to court in September. \u201cAs we progress toward the fall, I will start requesting commitments for trial dates,\u201d Farber said, setting a tentative jury selection date of November 12.<\/p>\n Even if Weinstein prevails in his New York case, it’s unlikely his California conviction will be similarly overturned. That state’s laws (specifically, California Evidence Code section 1108<\/a>) allows prosecutors in sex crime cases to bring up a defendant’s past accusations of misconduct, even if those claims aren’t part of the charges being heard.<\/p>\n “The legal issues identified by the New York Court of Appeal are not present in the Los Angeles County case,” a spokesperson for the Los Angeles district attorney’s office said at the time. If Manhattan prosecutors are unsuccessful in this second trial, it’s expected that Weinstein will be extradited to California to begin serving his 16-year sentence for the crimes committed in that state.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n