The retrial of disgraced US movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, accused of raping actress Jessica Mann, got underway Tuesday with lawyers presenting their opening arguments to a 12-member jury.
- +Harvey Weinstein Rape Retrial Hears Opening Arguments
The judge declared a mistrial on the allegations by Mann last June after the jury foreperson refused to return to deliberate the case amid a jury-room feud.
The judge declared a mistrial on the allegations by Mann last June after the jury foreperson refused to return to deliberate the case amid a jury-room feud.
Weinstein, 74 and wheelchair-bound by ill health, is being retried on a count of third-degree rape in the New York state supreme court in Manhattan.
He is already serving a 16-year prison term in a California case for the rape of a European actress more than a decade ago.
He is appealing that conviction, and another from the trial in June.
Before their foreperson quit, the jury convicted Weinstein of sexual assault against movie producer Miriam Haley and acquitted him of the same alleged crime against Polish-born actress Kaja Sokola.
Weinstein has hired a new legal team including Marc Agnifilo, who represents high profile figures including rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The Oscar-winning Weinstein has claimed to be under threat at the notorious Rikers Island jail complex in the Bronx where he is being held, leaving him mostly in solitary confinement.
“I’m constantly threatened and derided. I wouldn’t last long out there,” he told the Hollywood Reporter at the start of the year.
Weinstein was known for his fiery temper, and the industry had long been rife with suggestions that he took advantage of his power to sexually exploit women.
In 2017, blockbuster investigations by the New Yorker and the New York Times laid bare a series of claims by young women that triggered an avalanche of allegations from more than 80 complainants and prompted the global #MeToo movement.
