Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new sex crimes charges in New York | Ents & Arts News

Harvey Weinstein has appeared in court for a new sex crime. He is accused of sexually assaulting a woman in a New York hotel in 2006.

The new charges against the disgraced film producer were first announced last week, just days after he underwent emergency heart surgery at a Manhattan hospital to remove fluid from his heart and lungs.

Prosecutors did not provide further details at the time, but said new charges were not part of the case, which led to his now overturned groundbreaking #MeToo conviction in 2020.

When he appeared in court in Manhattan on Wednesday in a wheelchair, Tartar pleaded not guilty to a new charge of first-degree felony murder.

He wore a dark suit and blue tie, with a large bandage on his right hand, and when asked for his plea, he replied emphatically, “Not guilty.”

Weinstein, 72, has always stressed that any sexual activity was consensual.

The new charges accuse the former film mogul of forcing a woman to perform a sexual act in a downtown Manhattan hotel sometime between April 29 and May 6, 2006.

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He is also charged with first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, which also relate to a previous indictment in New York State Supreme Court, said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr. Weinstein has also pleaded not guilty to those charges.

“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein is now facing trial for yet another alleged sexual assault,” Mr Bragg said. “The investigation is ongoing. If you have been sexually assaulted, I assure you that our team of dedicated prosecutors, investigators, social workers and many others are standing by to support you.”

No details have been released about the plaintiff involved in the new indictment.

“She will be fully prepared to speak her truth at trial to hold Mr. Weinstein accountable before a jury of his peers,” her attorney Lindsay Goldbrum said in a statement.

Why was Weinstein's original conviction overturned?

In addition, Weinstein is facing a retrial of his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction. New York State's highest court overturned the conviction in a landmark ruling in April.

The Court of Appeal ruled that he had not been given a fair trial because the judge presiding over the hearing had wrongly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case.

Weinstein was serving a 23-year prison sentence at the time. Although the verdict was overturned, he remained in prison for another conviction last year for the rape of an actress in Los Angeles in 2013.

The retrial is scheduled to begin on November 12, but there may be possible delays due to the new charges.

Prosecutors have said they will try to include the new charges in the new trial, but Weinstein's lawyers say there should be a separate trial.

Meanwhile, in early September, Prosecutors in Great Britain Two sexual assault charges filed in 2022 were dropped on the grounds that there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”

Weinstein, once one of the most powerful men in Hollywood, co-founded the film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company and produced films such as the Oscar-winning “Shakespeare In Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”

A judge agreed last week to keep Weinstein in the jail ward at Bellevue Hospital indefinitely rather than transferring him back to the infirmary at New York's Rikers Island prison complex.