NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors are asking a Manhattan judge to consolidate the two sex crime cases that Harvey Weinstein faces in New York into a single trial this year — a move that the disgraced movie mogul’s lawyers oppose.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office argued in court filings released Friday that the cases have significant overlap as they involve similar criminal statutes, witnesses, expert testimony and documentary evidence.
They say separate trials would be “extraordinarily inefficient and burdensome” and waste judicial resources.
“There is a strong public interest in consolidating these indictments for trial because separate trials would require duplicative, lengthy, and expensive proceedings that would needlessly consume judicial and party resources,” the office wrote in its filings.
Weinstein is awaiting retrial on two sex charges stemming from his landmark #MeToo case after the state’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction earlier this year.
He also pleaded not guilty last month to a new sex crime charge in which prosecutors say he forced oral sex on a woman in a Manhattan hotel in spring 2006.
Weinstein’s lawyers, in court filings submitted earlier this month, argued the cases should remain separate.
They said prosecutors are attempting to “expand the scope” of the court-ordered retrial and transform it into “an entirely new proceeding” by including the new charges.
“Having deprived Defendant of a fair trial once, the People unapologetically—indeed, unabashedly—seek to do so again by smuggling an additional charge into the case for the improper purpose of bolstering the credibility of the complainant in the 2024 indictment,” Weinstein’s lawyers wrote.
A judge is expected to consider the arguments at a hearing later this month.
Weinstein, who has been in custody since his conviction, was also convicted of rape in Los Angeles in 2022, though his lawyers have appealed.
The 72-year-old co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company and, produced films such as “Shakespeare in Love” and “The Crying Game.”
Manhattan prosecutors, in their filings, laid out some of their plans for the upcoming retrial, which had been slated to open Nov. 12.
They said they intend to call 12 to 15 witnesses to testify on issues relevant to both the new and old charges, including the victims and corroborating witnesses.
Prosecutors said they’ll also call on experts with knowledge of Weinstein’s “status and influence in the entertainment industry” both in order to “establish the power imbalance” between the once-powerful producer and the victims, many of whom worked in the industry.
They also anticipate testimony from a photographer who can corroborate testimony from the victims about “distinctive features” of Weinstein’s body, something that was also a focus during his prior trial.
Weinstein's lawyers, meanwhile, complained that prosecutors had long been aware of the allegations in the latest criminal indictment yet “held this case in their back pocket for years.”
They said Bragg's office had been in contact with the latest accuser going back to Weinstein's original trial and that she's changed her stories about her interactions with Weinstein over the years.
Lindsay Goldbrum, an attorney that represents the woman, didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment Friday.
She's previously said the woman has never made her accusation public and doesn’t want to be identified for now.
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Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press