A woman who claims she was assaulted by Harvey Weinstein in 2013 at a Manhattan hotel is set to use the term โforceโ during her testimony in his retrial. This decision by Judge Curtis Farber came despite Weinsteinโs previous acquittal on charges that he employed physical force against her. After re-evaluating legal precedents, Farber decided not to restrict Jessica Mann, a former aspiring actor, from detailing her allegations. Mann is one of the accusers involved in the charges against Weinstein in this retrial, which was scheduled to commence with jury selection the following Tuesday.
Weinsteinโs attorney, Arthur Aidala, expressed that the ruling could potentially be appealed. The jurors in the previous trial exonerated Weinstein from first-degree rape, which mandates evidence of โforcible compulsion,โ yet found him guilty of third-degree rape, indicating a lack of consent. Although this conviction was later overturned, the acquittal on the first-degree charge remained.
โIt defies logic that the original trial revolved around force, and he was cleared of that charge,โ Aidala remarked to the media during a break in the pretrial proceedings. โWhy then is this matter being revisited?โ Weinstein has consistently refuted allegations of rape or sexual assault.
Weinsteinโs defense team argued against Mann describing him as using physical force at the Manhattan hotel, which could potentially raise the topic of his prior first-degree rape acquittal. Judge Farber, however, noted that Weinsteinโs attorneys have the opportunity during cross-examinations to challenge Mannโs narrative and suggested that they could propose a jury instruction to resolve any ambiguity.
The prosecution seeks to prevent the jury from hearing about Weinsteinโs acquittals and the overturned conviction. Now 73, Weinstein faces a retrial on charges including sex crimes and third-degree rape. Prosecutors allege that he performed an act of oral sex by force on a production assistant in 2006 and raped Mann in 2013. Additionally, a new charge introduced last year claims that he forced oral sex on another woman in 2006, also at a Manhattan hotel.
During the initial trial in 2020, Mann testified that Weinstein trapped her in a hotel room in March 2013, aggressively demanded she disrobe, and then raped her. She further accused him of assaulting her again eight months later in a Beverly Hills hotel, where she worked as a hairdresser. โI want the jury to know that he is my rapist,โ she declared during the 2020 proceedings.
Weinsteinโs actions were pivotal in the rise of the #MeToo movement, an era that saw numerous women sharing their stories of sexual harassment by influential figures. The state Court of Appeals overturned his conviction from this trial, citing the trial judge, James M. Burke, improperly allowed testimonies from unrelated allegations by other women. These testimonies will not be part of the retrial, and Judge Burke has since retired.
Weinstein faced another conviction in Los Angeles in 2022 for rape charges. He is serving a 16-year sentence for this case, though his legal team appealed the decision in June, asserting that he was denied a fair trial. Farberโs recent ruling stipulates that if Weinstein testifies in the retrial set for April 15, prosecutors can inquire about his felony conviction in California but cannot delve into the specifics of the crimes.
Generally, individuals alleging sexual assault are not named unless they consent, as Mann has done, allowing her to speak publicly about her accusations in this significant retrial.