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Harvey Weinstein rape conviction overturned by NY appeals court; California conviction remains

Jenny Jarvie, Richard Winton and Stephen Battaglio, Los Angeles Times on

Published in News & Features

“Those that seek to somehow exonerate or explain away Harvey Weinstein’s behavior should also be ashamed of themselves,” he added. “He should never see the light of day. Period. Full stop.”

When Weinstein was first convicted in New York, the verdict was celebrated as a landmark win in the sweeping #MeToo movement that sought to hold men accountable for their sexual harassment and abuse of women.

Weinstein, alongside his brother Bob, created a show business empire through their entertainment company Miramax, revolutionizing the movie industry as they marketed independent films such as “sex, lies and videotape,” “Pulp Fiction” and the Oscar-winning “Shakespeare in Love” into box-office hits.

Along the way, there were whispers throughout the entertainment industry that Weinstein was a sexual predator. The allegations finally became public in October 2017, when accounts of sexual abuse from women who dealt with Weinstein over the years emerged after investigations by The New York Times and The New Yorker.

The mogul denied the claims. But the accusations continued to multiply and dozens of women came forward.

Outside the Manhattan criminal courthouse Thursday, Weinstein’s legal team celebrated the ruling.

 

“From the bottom of our hearts, from our collective hundreds of years of experience, we knew that Harvey Weinstein did not get a fair trial,” his lead attorney, Arthur Aidala, said. “There are some people who are unpopular in society, but we still have to apply the law fairly.”

The ruling undermined the will of the jurors in the case, Judge Madeline Singas wrote for the court’s dissenting opinion.

“This Court has continued a disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence,” Singas wrote.

Singas argued that the court whitewashed facts to conform to a he-said/she-said narrative, ignored evidence of Weinstein’s manipulation and premeditation and failed to recognize the jury was entitled to consider the defendant’s alleged previous assaults.

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©2024 Los Angeles Times. Visit at latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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