According to a report from Page Six, a judge on Friday eliminated not one but two charges of predatory sexual assault from Harvey Weinstein’s case with the permission of both the defense lawyers as well as the prosecutors.
The Assistant District Attorney, Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, explained in the court documents that the dropped charges were eliminated for the sake of simplification. This past month, the Manhattan DA’s office brought a brand new indictment against the former mogul so that Annabella Sciorra could testify against the producer.
This last-minute move had the consequence of pushing the trial back by four months to the 6th of January, 2020. The DA asked for Justice James Burke to get rid of the first indictment and to bring all of the remaining charges together as a brand new one.
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In response to the decision, Harvey’s lawyers, Arthur Aidala, and Donna Rotunno stated that the original counts had to be dropped anyway as a matter of law because they were “duplicates.” Regardless, both parties agreed to the new terms.
Now, the former Weinstein Company mogul will battle against 5 criminal charges in a single indictment, including two counts of rape, one count of a criminal sex act, as well as two counts of predatory sexual assault. Harvey was accused of raping an unidentified woman 6 years ago in 2013 as well as forcing a sex act on Mimi Haleyi thirteen years ago in 2006.
Despite the fact the Weinstein Company exec is not charged with raping the aforementioned Sciorra, her allegations will support the new charges he’s currently up against. Reportedly, Harvey, if convicted to the fullest extent of the law, will get life in prison.
Harvey Weinstein will be the second major Hollywood figure to serve jail time in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement if he’s convicted. However, Bill Cosby’s case first came to the public consciousness back in 2014 following the viral Hannibal Buress stand-up skit.
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The allegations against Harvey played a fundamental role in the birth of the #MeToo movement which rocked the entertainment industry.
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