Judge installed by liberal Democrats over centrist Hochul pick responsible for Harvey Weinstein ruling

Harvey Weinstein’s blockbuster legal win this week was produced and directed by New York’s liberals, critic say.

The decision that overturned the molesting movie maven’s sex crime conviction was orchestrated by Chief Judge Rowan Wilson of New York’s Appellate Court, who progressive pols helped install over Gov. Hochul’s more moderate pick, Hector LaSalle, last year.

He replaced, through an unclear process, two judges who had recused themselves from the case with two judges who joined him in the 4-3 ruling. The decision gutted over a hundred years of precedent which said victims can testify about potential crimes that a defendant hadn’t been charged with and dealt a serious blow to the #MeToo movement.

“Sadly, this is what the New York that Senate Democrats were fighting for and this decision rests at their feet,” Sen. Anthony Palumbo (R-Suffolk) wrote in a statement.

“It just seems so corrupt. I hate to use such a strong word, but it really seems corrupt,” Palumbo added in an interview with the Post.

“In an effort to find a far-let activist judge to do their bidding, legislative Democrats chose Rowan Wilson, who is clearly unfit for the job,” added GOP state Sen. George Borrello. This shameful and bizarre overturning of Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction is clear evidence that they chose an unhinged and unqualified chief judge.”

“In this particular case they kinda got what they deserved, the Democrats, because this was a remarkable chain of events overturning this conviction,” state Conservative Party Chairman Gerry Kassar said.

Liberal Democrats in the state Senate canned Hochul’s nomination of LaSalle, a more centrist jurist, citing previous rulings on issues like abortion and labor rights.

They went as far as stacking the state Senate judiciary committee with more Democrats in an attempt to block the nomination.

After LaSalle’s nomination was finally killed, Hochul caved to pressure from pols in her party and picked a more liberal new nominee.

She settled on Wilson, then an associate judge on the high court. Wilson was often the dissenter on a court many progressives viewed as too right-leaning.

In the Weinstein ruling, Wilson was able to use his power as chief judge to replace Associate Judges Shirley Troutman and Caitlin Halligan — who had recused themselves — with judges Betsy Barros and Christine Clark. It wasn’t clear why the two judges asked off the case.

Wilson, Barros and Clark wound up siding with Associate Judge Jenny Rivera, an activist appointee of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, in deciding to overturn the 2020 guilty verdict handed down to Weinstein in Manhattan Criminal Court on charges of rape and sexual assault.

Associate Judges Madeline Singas, Anthony Cannataro and Michael Garcia dissented.

Rivera, who wrote the ruling, said that the prosecutors’ use of Molineux witnesses – people alleging criminal acts separate from what the defendant was being charged with – motivated the jury to consider Weinstein’s bad character rather than the facts of the case.

Prosecutors contended that the Molineux witnesses, who described despicable instances of being raped, were crucial to prove that Weinstein had a history of using his power to coerce the women into sex.

The ruling left some observers questioning how Wilson could decide to pick two judges who wound up siding with him — especially since it is unusual for a chief judge to replace recused jurists and normal to just come to a ruling with fewer judges.

“There’s also something very wrong with him having the ability to judge shop when other justices mysteriously recuse themselves for unknown reasons,” Borello (R-Chautauqua) opined

“I guess I’m not surprised coming from a man who tried to give habeas corpus rights to a zoo elephant. That elephant should never be freed, and neither should Harvey Weinstein.”

Despite the ruling, some Democrats who backed Wilson stood by him.

“I have the utmost confidence in Chief Judge Rowan Wilson.” state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D-Manhattan) told the Post Friday.

Hoylman-Sigal said that he thinks that “the ball is now in the legislature’s court” to consider crafting a law to reimplement some form of the precedent around Molineux witnesses.

“We want to ensure that especially in crimes of sexual misconduct that survivors are given every opportunity to present their evidence in a court of law,” Hoylman-Sigal said.

Palumbo–a former prosecutor who has tried sex crimes cases–isn’t thrilled at the premise of taking discretion away from judges who, until now, had leniency to consider the facts and specifics of a case.

He said that Molineux witnesses are especially important to proving complicated acquaintance sexual assault cases – or date rape – where defendants often present the argument that the act was consensual.

“This is bad. This is really bad. How are you ever going to prove an acquaintance date rape is actually a rape?” he said.

“We’re analyzing the scale of that decision, the impact, what it means, and how we can make sure that all women feel safe coming forward,” Gov. Kathy Hochul told reporters Friday before ducking away from more questions about the case and its impacts.

“We don’t live and die by one case. We will keep going. Over the past few years, New York lawmakers have shown what it means to stand with survivors, but too many barriers still exist in our courts to say the work is done. We will keep fighting,” said Erica Vladimer of the Sexual Harassment Working Group wrote to the Post.

“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” a spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg wrote in a statement.

Wilson’s practice of picking replacement judges to fill the seats of recused judges is a departure from his predecessors who traditionally would only “vouch” in a new judge for a case when the court didn’t have a quorum.

The Weinstein case is at least the second major case that replacement judges have swung the court. Wilson tapped Appellate Division Judge Diane Renwick, who ruled with the majority in the four to three decision to overturn the state’s redistricting maps last year.