Weeks after his sex crimes conviction was overturned in New York, disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein has filed an appeal against his rape conviction in Los Angeles, with his lawyers arguing he was not given a “fair opportunity” to fight the charges to defend.
The appeal, filed Friday with California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal, alleges that the judge improperly excluded evidence that his attorneys say would have refuted allegations by Jane Doe 1 (referred to as JD1 in court documents) that Weinstein went uninvited to her hotel room was gone. and “raped her for over an hour” during the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival in 2013. His lawyers also say the judge should not have informed jurors in the Los Angeles case of Weinstein’s conviction in New York, and that the jury was unfairly prejudiced by allegations made by other women who were not involved in incidents related to the indictment.
“Weinstein’s appeal uses the same tired arguments he previously made multiple times in court, without success,” Jane Doe 1’s attorney David Ring told The Associated Press on Friday. “We strongly believe that the court appropriately vetted the evidence and made all the correct decisions in its evidentiary rulings. We are confident that Weinstein’s appeal will be rejected and he will spend many years in prison.”
Weinstein’s lawyers are seeking a new trial in Los Angeles. His publicist Juda Engelmayer said in a statement to NBC News that the appeal argues there were “shameful legal missteps” that violated his right to a fair trial.
“Harvey Weinstein was tried by a system designed to ‘get him’ at any cost,” Engelmayer said.
Weinstein, now 72, was found guilty in a Los Angeles court in 2022 of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against Jane Doe 1. He was sentenced to 16 years behind bars. At the time, he was already in prison due to a historic #MeToo conviction in New York. That conviction was overturned in late April after repeated attempts to appeal.
The overturning of his conviction in New York came as a huge blow to the women who testified against him in court, raising questions about how equipped the justice system is to tackle sexual violence. At least a hundred women have come forward to accuse Weinstein of sexual abuse.
New York prosecutors have said they plan to retry him as soon as September.
This article was originally published on MSNBC.com
