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Harvey Weinstein is due in court Wednesday ahead of his #MeToo retrial, nearly a year after his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges was overturned.
Weinstein’s retrial is expected to be a shorter version of the original case.
However, there will be one major addition: An accusation from an alleged victim who was not a part of the 2020 case.
More details about how the prosecution will unfold are expected to be made clear on Wednesday.
Judge Curtis Farber will issue rulings on a range of issues related to the case, including potential expert witnesses and the scope of testimony from Weinstein’s accusers.
Weinstein, 72, is expected to be in court for the Wednesday rulings.
His retrial is scheduled to start in state court in Manhattan on April 15.
At his last court appearance, in January, Weinstein begged the judge to move that date up.
He told the judge “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on” with cancer, heart issues and harsh conditions at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex, where he is imprisoned.
The retrial includes charges that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013.
The additional charge, filed in September, alleges that he forced oral sex on a different woman at a Manhattan hotel in 2006.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said in court papers that the woman, who has not been identified publicly, came forward to prosecutors just days before the start of Weinstein’s first trial but was not part of that case.
Prosecutors said they did not pursue the women’s allegations after Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in prison, but they revisited them and secured a new indictment after the state’s Court of Appeals threw out his conviction last April.
Farber ruled in October to combine the new indictment and existing charges into one trial.
Weinstein’s lawyers contend that prosecutors prejudiced him by waiting nearly five years to bring the additional charge, suggesting they had elected not to include the allegation in his first trial so they could use it later if his conviction were reversed.
Weinstein has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone.
In February, Weinstein added Jennifer Bonjean, a lawyer who has represented Bill Cosby and R. Kelly, to a legal team that includes defense attorneys Arthur Aidala, Diana Fabi Samson and former judge Barry Kamins.
In vacating Weinstein’s conviction, the Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge, James M. Burke, unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.
Burke is no longer on the bench and such testimony will not be part of the retrial.
Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape. His 16-year prison sentence in that case still stands, but his lawyers appealed in June, arguing he did not get a fair trial.