Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein faces sentencing and a possible retrial in his New York City sex crimes case.
Manhattan Judge Curtis Farber said that he could sentence Weinstein on 30 September, but only if there’s no retrial on a rape charge that the last jury failed to decide.
If there is a retrial, the judge wants it to happen this fall.
Weinstein, 73, was convicted in June of forcing oral sex on TV and movie production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006. The charge carries a possible sentence of up to 25 years in prison.
At the same time, the same jury acquitted him of forcing oral sex on model Kaja Sokola, but couldn’t decide a charge that he raped hairstylist and actress Jessica Mann in 2013.
Manhattan prosecutors reiterated on Wednesday that they and Mann are ready for another trial on the rape charge. In this case, any conviction is punishable by up to four years in prison.
Prosecutors requested a January trial date, but Farber proposed the fall.
“The case needs to be tried this year,” Farber said.
Weinstein lawyer Arthur Aidala agreed, urging the judge to set the earliest possible date.
If a fall trial happens, it would likely put Weinstein’s high-profile #MeToo case back in court as Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is in the final stage of his reelection bid.
Bragg, a first-term Democrat who made prosecuting sex crimes cases a priority, has expressed satisfaction with Weinstein’s conviction on a criminal sex act charge related to Haley. Bragg has said Mann deserves a verdict on her part of the case.
“This work, first and foremost, is about the survivors, and that’s why we’re prepared to go forward,” Bragg said in June.
Weinstein also stands convicted of sex crimes in California. He is appealing that verdict and continued to deny all of the allegations against him.