Harvey Weinstein’s Lawyer On Overturned Verdict: “A Great Day for America”
Arthur Aidala, Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer in the appellate case, opened the first press conference after the former Hollywood mogul’s rape conviction in New York was overturned saying that his team always knew that “Harvey Weinstein did not get a fair trial.”
“You can’t throw out 100 years of legal precedent because someone is unpopular,” Aidala said, referring to the Molineux precedent that helped overturn the ruling. “Today’s legal ruling is a great day for America because it instills in us the faith that there is a justice system.”
More from The Hollywood Reporter
Harvey Weinstein Accusers React to Rape Conviction Overturned: "Profoundly Unjust"
N.Y. Appeals Court Overturns Harvey Weinstein Rape Conviction
'28 Years Later' Casts Jodie Comer, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ralph Fiennes
The New York state Court of Appeals overturned Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction Thursday, ruling that the judge in the New York County trial was prejudiced against Weinstein because among other things, the court allowed women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case.
Aidala said he spoke with Weinstein after 10 am Thursday on a call. Weinstein found out about the ruling in prison in upstate New York this morning, when someone walked over and handed him a piece of paper saying the conviction was reversed. “He just heaped praise on me and my whole team. He said ‘thank you’ more times than I could count,” the lawyer said.
“From the moment I met him at his office in Midtown, he profoundly declared his innocence,” the attorney recalled of Weinstein. “He said if you’re going to represent me, you need to know ‘I didn’t rape anyone, I didn’t sexually assault any of these women who I charged with.’ He said the same thing to me today.”
Aidala himself said he was surprised by the verdict because he did not expect any more decisions to be coming out from the court of appeals.
As for what will happen next, Aidala said Weinstein will be brought from the prison in upstate New York back to a facility near the courthouse in Manhattan for a new trial with a new judge and a new prosecutor. Aidala said he would be announcing that the defense team was ready for trial on the first day back in court and that Weinstein would take the stand in the trial. He noted that it is also under the district attorney’s discretion whether or not the case will go to trial or be dismissed.
“Harvey will, under this ruling, be able to take the stand, will be able to tell his side of his story,” Aidala said. He said Weinstein has been consistent with his story which is that there was a sexual encounter between him and Miriam Haley but he “never forced her to do anything.”
Given Thursday’s ruling, Aidala said the witnesses who testified in the prior case could no longer be used in a new trial, centering the case more squarely on Haley.
As for how it could impact Weinstein’s case and conviction in California, where Weinstein was convicted in December 2022 of rape, Aidala said he had spoken with Weinstein’s attorney there who said “the appellate points are actually stronger than the appellate points here.”
“I’m confident that if there’s a trial here in New York, Mr. Weinstein’s insistence on his innocence will come forward and he would be acquitted,” Aidala said.
The press conference took place in front of 100 Centre Street, where former President Donald Trump is currently on trial. And in the same park where a man set himself on fire last Friday, amid the Trump trial proceedings. A Trump supporter and press broadcasting for that trial surrounded the Weinstein press conference area.
A man in a pig mask holding a sign reading “Trump is a pig” appeared, and after, finding out it was a press conference for Weinstein, he folded his sign in half to read “is a pig” and stood behind the attorneys.
In the 2020 trial, Weinstein was found guilty of criminal sexual assault in the first degree, based on the testimony of former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley, and rape in the third degree, based on the testimony of onetime aspiring actress Jessica Mann. He was acquitted on three other charges, and was sentenced to 23 years in prison.
“Defendant was convicted by a jury for various sexual crimes against three named complainants and, on appeal, claims that he was judged, not on the conduct for which he was indicted, but on irrelevant, prejudicial and untested allegations of prior bad acts,” Judge Jenny Rivera wrote in her ruling.
The Judge added, “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 because that testimony served no material non-propensity purpose. The court compounded that error when it ruled that defendant, who had no criminal history, could be cross examined about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light. The synergistic effect of these errors was not harmless.”
Best of The Hollywood Reporter
