NEW YORK – Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new sexual assault charge on Wednesday, nearly five months after the disgraced Hollywood movie mogul’s earlier sex crimes conviction in New York was overturned.
Weinstein, 72, who is recovering from emergency heart surgery, entered his plea to committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree at a hearing before Justice Curtis Farber in a New York state court in Manhattan.
“Not guilty,” Weinstein responded emphatically when asked for his plea to the felony charge.
Weinstein still faces two other criminal counts from an earlier indictment where he also pleaded not guilty, including another first-degree criminal sexual act charge and a third-degree rape charge.
He appeared in court in a wheelchair, wearing a dark suit and a blue tie, and with a large bandage on his right hand.
The new charge announced by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg accuses Weinstein of sexually assaulting a woman in a downtown Manhattan hotel between April 29 and May 6, 2006.
“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein now stands indicted for an additional alleged violent sexual assault,” Bragg said in a statement.
Weinstein’s latest accuser has yet to be publicly identified.
“She will be fully prepared to speak her truth at trial to hold Weinstein accountable before a jury of his peers,” her lawyer Lindsay Goldbrum said in a statement.
It was unclear whether a retrial of Weinstein would include the three charges he now faces.
Jurors had found Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault in February 2020, less than 2-1/2 years after sexual misconduct accusations made his case the impetus for the #MeToo movement.
But the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, threw out Weinstein’s conviction and 23-year sentence in April, saying he did not get a fair trial because the judge allowed testimony from women who Weinstein was not charged with assaulting.
Weinstein has denied having nonconsensual sexual encounters with anyone. His original trial judge, James Burke, was not reappointed to the bench after his term expired at the end of 2022. (Reuters)
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