By Philip Marcelo
NEW YORK (AP) --Manhattan prosecutors told a judge Tuesday they're anticipating a November retrial for Harvey Weinstein as they intend to bring new sexual assault charges against the disgraced media mogul.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said prosecutors have not yet brought their findings to a grand jury and said she could not provide the court a timeline for when their investigation will be complete.
"The people are still investigating in a trauma-informed matter," she said. "That is an ongoing process."
But Weinstein's lawyer Arthur Aidala, with his client sitting next to him in a wheelchair, suggested the investigation was simply a delay tactic from prosecutors, saying something similar happened ahead of the initial rape trial.
"Once again we have the individual and we're looking for a crime," he said. "We've got the '1-800-Get-Harvey' hotline."
Blumberg responded that the office is actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan within the statute of limitations.
She said some potential survivors that were not ready to step forward during Weinstein's first New York trial may have indicated they are now willing to testify.
"There's certainly no delay tactics on our part," Blumberg said. "We're proceeding in the most expeditious manner."
She said the prosecution's plan is to proceed to trial in the fall.
When asked by Judge Curtis Farber what month she anticipated, Blumberg responded: "November would be a realistic timeframe."
Aidala said his client simply wants to get the trial going as soon as possible, noting he's in his fifth year of incarceration.
"He's suffering tremendously," Aidala said, adding that Weinstein suffers from macular degeneration, "fluid in his lungs" and diabetes that is "through the roof" because of the poor diet behind bars.
"He's basically getting no treatment for any of it," Aidala said. "He's not a young man. He's a sick man."
"These tactics from prosecutors are just delay, delay, delay," he added.
Judge Farber set the next pre-trial hearing for July 19.
Weinstein, 72, has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual. He's currently in custody at the city's Rikers Island jail complex but has suffered from medical problems throughout his time behind bars.
In April, New York's highest court threw out Weinstein's rape conviction after determining the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.
The ruling reopened a painful chapter in America's reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. The #MeToo era began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York, was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California. But in an appeal filed last month in California's Second District Court of Appeal, Weinstein's lawyers argued he did not get a fair trial in Los Angeles.
Harvey Weinstein hit with new sex crime charge in New York
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a new sex crime charge in New York, as he awaits retrial in his landmark #MeToo case.
Details of the new allegations were not immediately available. He was charged with committing a criminal sex act.
The jailed ex-movie mogul has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Prosecutors revealed last week that Weinstein had been indicted on additional sex crime charges that weren't part of the case that led to his now-overturned 2020 conviction. But the new indictment was sealed until his arraignment.
Prosecutors have said that the grand jury heard evidence of up to three alleged assaults — two in hotels in the Tribeca neighborhood and one at a lower Manhattan residential building. The purported incidents took place from the mid-2000s to 2016, prosecutors said.
But it's not clear whether any of those allegations underlie the new indictment.
While bracing for the new charges, Weinstein also is awaiting retrial after New York state's highest court this spring overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women. The high court, called the Court of Appeals, ordered a new trial, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12.
The Court of Appeals ruled that the then-trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations that were not part of the case. That judge's term expired in 2022, and he is no longer on the bench.
Prosecutors have said they'll seek to fold the new charges into the retrial, but Weinstein's lawyers say it should be a separate case.
Weinstein, who also was convicted in 2022 in a Los Angeles rape case, remains behind bars while awaiting his New York retrial.
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