Harvey Weinstein’s legal team is pushing for an appeal, claiming that the disgraced Hollywood mogul did not receive a fair trial when he was convicted of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2022.
Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the crimes.
The appeal, filed with California’s Second District Court of Appeal, comes after Weinstein’s similar conviction in New York was overturned by the state’s highest court.
The appeal in California argues that the trial judge wrongly excluded evidence that the Italian model and actor Weinstein was convicted of raping had a sexual relationship with the director of a film festival that both attended in Los Angeles.
Weinstein’s lawyers argue that the judge’s actions deprived him of his constitutional rights to present a defense and led to a miscarriage of justice. They also claim that the jury was unfairly prejudiced by testimony from women about alleged assaults that Weinstein was not charged with.
During the California trial, Weinstein was charged with sexually assaulting four women but was convicted of an attack on just one.
His defense team argues that the trial judge was wrong to prevent them from showing the jury Facebook messages that indicated the victim and the festival’s founder had a sexual relationship.
The defense’s arguments are similar to those made in a motion for a new trial that was rejected before Weinstein’s sentencing.
Since then, Weinstein has hired appellate attorneys, including Jennifer Bonjean, who successfully got Bill Cosby’s sexual assault conviction in Pennsylvania permanently thrown out.
The victim in the case, who went by the name Jane Doe 1 during the trial, has publicly come forward as Evgeniya Chernyshova.
Her attorney expressed confidence that Weinstein’s appeal will be denied and that he will spend many years in prison.
The defense appeals brief also mentions that three jurors have signed affidavits expressing regret over their unanimous guilty verdict.
The filing argues that the jurors did not believe the victim and the film festival director were romantically linked, which would have changed their view on whether a rape occurred.
Weinstein’s attorneys also suggest that a lawsuit filed by the victim shortly after the verdict demonstrates that they should have been allowed to question her financial motives in the case’s outcome.
The prosecution has until August 6 to file its response to the appeal.
Weinstein’s defense team first filed a notice of appeal in April 2023 and has since asked for several extensions before filing the recent brief.
The legal battle surrounding Weinstein’s convictions continues as his lawyers fight to have the convictions overturned.
