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LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison last year for raping a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel room in 2013, had his conviction in a separate rape case in New York overturned Thursday by that state's Court of Appeals, which called for a new trial.
"We conclude that the trial court erroneously admitted testimony of uncharged, alleged prior sexual acts against persons other than the complainants of the underlying crimes," according to the court's 4-3 decision. "The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial."
"... It is an abuse of judicial discretion to permit untested allegations of nothing more than bad behavior that destroys a defendant's character but sheds no light on their credibility as related to the criminal charges lodged against them," the court said.
Weinstein will not be released, since he was convicted of the separate rape in Los Angeles court.
The 72-year-old co-founder of Miramax has been serving a 23-year sentence in a New York prison after he was convicted in that state of forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013.
Arthur Aidala, Weinstein's lawyer, said the decision was "not just a victory for Mr. Weinstein, but for every criminal defendant in the state of New York, and we compliment the Court of Appeals for upholding the most basic principles that a criminal defendant should have in a trial," according to the New York Times.
"We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault," a Manhattan District Attorney's Office spokesperson told reporters.
In the Beverly Hills case, Weinstein was convicted in December 2022 of three of the seven criminal counts he was facing, forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. The alleged crimes occurred on or about Feb. 18, 2013, in a Beverly Hills hotel room.
The victim said she attended a film festival and alleges that Weinstein came to her hotel room unexpectedly after she attended events that day and committed the crimes.
She did not report the attack until 2017, when she had a talk with her daughter, during a time when Weinstein was at the forefront of the #metoo movement. He would eventually be accused of sexual abuse by more than 80 women.
Attorney David Ring, who represented the victim in the Los Angeles criminal case, provided a statement to City News Service on Thursday, saying she was "obviously disappointed that the criminal convictions against Weinstein were overturned in the New York case. She feels badly for those victims who endured that trial and the subsequent appeals, only to see the convictions reversed.
"However, both she and I are confident that Weinstein's Los Angeles conviction for rape will be upheld. As the only victim who has now obtained a criminal conviction against Weinstein, she will continue to stand tall and do whatever necessary to obtain justice not only for herself but for all victims."