Harvey Weinstein will now face trial on a consolidated case sometime next year, following a decision on Wednesday from the New York judge overseeing the ailing mogul’s sex crimes case.
Weinstein’s defense team had opposed the motion, saying it would unduly prejudice their client.
The embattled and wheelchair-bound producer appeared in court on Wednesday.
Weinstein showed no discernable reaction when Farber issued his ruling, while his publicist banged his fist so forcefully on a bench that a court officer wandered over to quietly admonish him.
Trial in the case had originally been set for this fall, but will now occur at an unspecified date this summer given the motion practice that will follow consolidation.
Farber told the parties he would issue a decision on all outstanding motions, including about the trial date, at an appearance in January.
Weinstein was initially convicted on charges of Criminal Sexual Act in the First degree and Rape in the Third Degree in February 2020 and acquitted of two other counts following a jury trial.
He was again indicted in September on one count of criminal sex act in the first degree involving a new complainant whose allegations were unrelated to the 2018 indictment.
“This Court observes that defendant’s claim that he will be unfairly prejudiced by consolidation even with a limiting instruction is belied by the case history,” Farber wrote in his decision, which was made public Wednesday following the hearing..
The judge noted that consolidation had occurred in the previous case but “resulted in no prejudice to the defendant,” given that the jury returned a mixed verdict.
“In defendant’s previous trial, it was not the consolidation of the 2018 and 2019 indictments that necessitated reversal, but the admission of additional uncharged sexual assault accusations,” he ruled.
Weinstein is represented by Arthur Aidala, Ret. Judge Barry Kamins, Diana Fabi Sampson, and John Esposito of Aidala Bertuna & Kamins.
Following the hearing, Aidala said the defense team did not intend to appeal this ruling but would be filing other motions—including a motion to dismiss the 2018 third-degree rape count.
Aidala said Weinstein has already served prison time relative to that count, and he therefore considered her a backdoor Molineaux witness.
“It’s the DA’s way of getting in Molineux,” he said, ” to keep piling on propensity evidence.”
Aidala said his team would be relying in part of the reversal from the Court of Appeals, which in part found the trial court had erred in allowing jurors to hear evidence of uncharged sex crimes.
Recent reports have indicated that Weinstein, 72, has been diagnosed with cancer.
Aidala declined to confirm that, but said his client was a “fighter” who would “fight this case.”
While Weinstein remains in custody, Kamins said their client was “very engaged in his defense.”
“He doesn’t take no for an answer,” Aidala added.
He’s due back in court January 29.
Read the decision to consolidate: