Producer Harvey Weinstein faces further sex crime charges ahead of his retrial in New York

Disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein has been charged with additional sex crimes ahead of his retrial in New York, Manhattan prosecutors said at a hearing on Thursday.

The indictment remains sealed until Weinstein's arraignment on the new charges, scheduled for September 18.

Weinstein, 72, is recovering from emergency heart surgery performed at a Manhattan hospital on Monday to remove fluid from his heart and lungs. He was not present at Thursday's hearing.

Prosecutors retrial Weinstein's overturned rape conviction announced last week that they had begun presenting evidence to a grand jury on up to three additional allegations against Weinstein dating back to the mid-2000s.

These include alleged sexual assaults at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, now known as the Roxy Hotel, and at a residential building in Lower Manhattan between late 2005 and mid-2006, as well as an alleged sexual assault at a Tribeca hotel in May 2016.

Because the indictment is sealed, it was not known whether the new charges included some or all of the additional allegations.

Prosecutors had sought to retry Weinstein after the New York State Court of Appeals earlier this year overturned his 2020 conviction for rape and sexual assault and ordered a retrial.

It remains to be seen whether the new charges will be included in the retrial – as the prosecution hopes – or whether the court will treat them as a separate case.

The new charges come after British prosecutors announced last week that they would no longer pursue sexual assault charges against Weinstein, who was the most high-profile perpetrator of the #MeToo movement in 2017, when women began coming forward with accounts of his behavior.

Weinstein, co-founder of the film and television production company Miramax, has long held the view that all sexual activity is consensual.

At Thursday's hearing, Judge Curtis Farber ruled that Weinstein could remain at Bellevue Hospital indefinitely for health reasons and would not need to be transferred back to the city's Rikers Island jail complex.

The office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg had been hinting for months that new charges were imminent against Weinstein. Weinstein was once one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, producing films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”

In July, prosecutors told a judge they were actively pursuing the statute-barred rape allegations in Manhattan.

They said some potential accusers who were unwilling to speak during Weinstein's first New York trial have indicated they are now willing to testify.

New York State's highest court in April overturned Weinstein's 2020 conviction after it found the trial judge improperly allowed testimony against him based on allegations made by other women who were not part of the case.

Prosecutors have said one of the accusers in the case, Jessica Mann, is willing to testify against him again. It is unclear whether the second accuser, Mimi Haley, would attend. Her attorney, Gloria Allred, declined to comment.

The Associated Press does not name people who make allegations of sexual assault unless they agree to have their names used, as Haley and Mann did.

Weinstein, who was serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York at the time his conviction was overturned, was convicted of another rape in Los Angeles in 2022.

His 16-year sentence in that case remains in place, but his lawyers filed an appeal in June, arguing he did not receive a fair trial in Los Angeles. Weinstein remains in custody at New York's Rikers Island jail complex while he awaits a retrial.

(This article has not been edited by News18 staff and is from the feed of a syndicated news agency – Associated Press.)