‘It’s upsetting’: Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction overturned by NY Court of Appeals

NEW YORK (PIX11) — Harvey Weinstein’s accusers are waiting to see what will happen next now that a New York Appeals Court overturned his 2020 conviction.

“It’s upsetting and I’m afraid it will have a chilling effect on more victims coming forward,” Lauren Sivan, a reporter, and Long Island native, tells PIX11 News.

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Sivan, who accused Weinstein of cornering her and masturbating in front of her in 2007.

“The idea that they did all this and now it is overturned, it really shows that we may have come a long way as far as social awareness, but I don’t think the legal system has caught up,” she said.

New York’s Court of Appeals found the trial judge in the rape case prejudiced Weinstein with “egregious” improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that Weinstein wasn’t charged with.

In its 4-3 decision, the court’s majority said it was an “abuse of judicial discretion” for Judge James Burke to allow testimony from these other women about “loathsome alleged bad acts and despicable behavior.”

Judge Madeline Singas, the former Nassau District Attorney, issued a scathing dissent.

Singas wrote the ruling comes at “the expense and safety of women” and represents a “disturbing trend of overturning juries’ guilty verdicts in cases involving sexual violence.”

“The court of appeals deserves a tremendous amount of credit for doing this based on the law, not based on opinion polls, not based on popularity,” Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala said.

Weinstein has been serving time in update New York but will now be sent to Los Angeles to serve his sentence on a separate rape conviction. It’s not clear when that will happen.

“We will do everything in our power to retry this case,” a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office said.

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