In #MeToo’s wake, Harvey Weinstein heads to court — again

NEW YORK — Far from the red carpets of Hollywood, Harvey Weinstein rolled into the courtroom handcuffed to his wheelchair, flanked by guards. Gone was the gauntlet of reporters and the throngs of protestors who once greeted the disgraced movie producer’s earlier appearances to face allegations of sexual assaults. Now, a lone cameraman stood outside in the early morning hours in downtown Manhattan. 

This was the scene Wednesday as Weinstein appeared on the one remaining charge against him: that he raped aspiring actress Jessica Mann.

Weinstein refused to accept a plea deal, and a judge said he would be tried on that charge — for a second time — later this year. In the meantime, on Sept. 30, he will be sentenced for sexually assaulting Miriam Haley, one of his former production assistants.

It was a low-key proceeding, another step toward a final resolution of the long-running criminal case that ended Weinstein’s career as an Oscar-winning producer and launched the #MeToo movement. 

Weinstein has been convicted in both New York and Los Angeles, and unless appeals courts intervene, he will spend at least 16 years in prison. At age 73 and in poor health, he is essentially serving a life sentence, an ignominious conclusion to a storied career.

The fall of a mogul 

Harvey Weinstein was once one of Hollywood’s most powerful people. The producer of films like “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction,” his companies’ movies won 81 Academy Awards as he made hits and made careers, especially for young actresses.

For years, rumors circulated about Weinstein’s use of a modern-day casting couch, using the quid pro quo: trading sexual favors, massages and showers for Hollywood ascension. 

This was the pre-#MeToo era, where many women felt they endured lechery without recourse. Fear and shame often kept rape and sexual assault survivors from coming forward, as many felt the law did little to protect survivors.

“Sexual harassment typically lurks in the shadows,” as The Washington Post writer Paul Farhi wrote, “and yet it’s rarely a secret.”

Winds of change began sweeping through in October 2017. Two explosive investigative reports hit within a week of each other — first in The New York Times, then in The New Yorker — that cast Weinstein as a powerful sexual predator whose companies, Miramax and The Weinstein Company, silenced women through coercing them to settle and sign non-disclosure agreements. 

“The mogul used money from his brother and elaborate legal agreements to hide allegations of predation for decades,” wrote Ronan Farrow for The New Yorker, who later shared a Pulitzer Prize with two New York Times reporters. 

Scores of women and actresses ultimately went on record, among them Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashley Judd, Rose McGowan and Angelina Jolie.

“I had a bad experience with Harvey Weinstein in my youth, and as a result, chose never to work with him again and warn others when they did,” Jolie said in an email in 2017 to the BBC. “This behaviour towards women in any field, any country is unacceptable.”

Days after the initial reports, the Weinstein Company’s board fired Weinstein, and he was expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Weinstein’s wife, fashion designer Georgia Chapman, left him. Weinstein faced a global reckoning, as more survivors felt they could speak up. 

New York filed criminal charges against Weinstein the following spring. As he went on trial in early 2020, he also faced additional sexual assault charges in Los Angeles.

After his conviction in New York, a judge sentenced him to 23 years. His LA conviction added on 16 more years. He began serving time in an upstate New York prison. But not for long. 

The appeal 

Weinstein moved into the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, New York, in 2020, to serve 20 years for forcibly performing oral sex on Haley in 2006 and three years for the rape in the third degree of Mann in 2013.

But in 2024, New York’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, overturned the conviction, ruling that the trial judge had made “egregious errors” by allowing testimony from women who claimed Weinstein assaulted them but who were not formally included in his charges. 

New York state law protects criminal defendants from being judged based on their previous behavior that is not included in their charges. This is dubbed the “Molineux Rule,” referring to a landmark 1901 case, The People v. Molineux. 

“We conclude,” the opinion said, “that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose.” 

New York prosecutors announced plans for a retrial, and Weinstein was moved from prison upstate to jail in New York City. Because of his feeble condition, the city moved him from its infamous Rikers Island jail — which Weinstein labeled a “hell hole” — to Bellevue, New York City’s oldest public hospital.

Meanwhile, Weinstein’s lawyers appealed his California conviction, saying the producer did not receive a fair trial in Los Angeles in 2020. That appeal is still pending.

The New York retrial

Weinstein went on trial again in June on charges involving three alleged victims: Haley, Mann and model-turned-psychotherapist Kaja Sokola.

On June 11, jurors announced a split verdict: They found Weinstein guilty of assaulting the production assistant, Haley, but acquitted him on the same charge involving Sokola. And Judge Curtis Farber declared a partial mistrial after the jury foreman refused to complete deliberations on the third-degree rape charges involving Mann.

The June retrial set the stage for Wednesday’s hearing.

Weinstein could have brought the case to a close by pleading guilty to the third-degree rape charge.

But “he doesn’t want the word rape associated with him,” Weinstein’s defense attorney Arthur Aidala told press outside the courthouse. 

Prosecutors suggested scheduling the trial for early January, saying their legal team and witnesses might not be available sooner.

But Aidala pushed back: “My client has been at Rikers Island, far from an ideal place to be, since April 2025.” 

“I don’t remember any other witnesses,” Aidala continued. “There was one person in the hotel room.” 

After deliberating with the attorney, Judge Farber said to the half-empty courtroom, “A trial date in January is not acceptable.” 

Farber set the next hearing for Sept. 30, when he is expected to set the retrial date. He will also impose Weinstein’s sentence for sexually assaulting Haley. He previously received 20 years for this crime. 

More prison time in California

No matter how the New York case turns out, Weinstein still faces a 16-year prison sentence in California. That term is to be served after he completes his sentence in New York. 

Weinstein doesn’t believe he should spend what is likely to be the rest of his life in prison.

“I tried all my life to bring happiness to people,” Weinstein said to the Los Angeles courtroom. “Please don’t sentence me to life in prison. I don’t deserve it.”