Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Calif., On Tuesday, October 4, 2022.
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Etienne Laurent / AP
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Calif., On Tuesday, October 4, 2022.
Etienne Laurent / AP
Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s second criminal trial for alleged sexual assaults on women, at least one of which took place 18 years ago, will take place in Los Angeles this week.
The selection of the jury begins on Monday.
The start of the Los Angeles criminal trial comes five years after the first stories exposing his wrongdoing against women were first published by Los New York Times y the New Yorker. Those stories also helped the #MeToo movement spread, bringing down other powerful men in Hollywood and beyond.
Weinstein, 70, is already serving a 23-year sentence linked to his 2020 sentence in New York on charges of criminal sex and third-degree rape.
However, the Los Angeles trial is significant, as Weinstein is appealing his New York conviction. If convicted, the Los Angeles verdict could add decades to his detention. But if his appeal to him in New York is successful, the Los Angeles verdict may be the only substantive reason he stays in prison.
What’s different in this case from Los Angeles?
A general view of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
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A general view of the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center.
Frazer Harrison / Getty Images
In Los Angeles, Weinstein faces 11 allegations of sexual harassment of women in separate incidents over nearly a decade, a larger case than in New York.
Weinstein was first charged with sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2020, just as his trial was starting in New York. He was eventually charged in Los Angeles in July 2021 with four counts of forced rape and forced oral intercourse, two counts of restraint sexual assault and one count of forceful sexual penetration.
Weinstein allegedly raped a woman in a hotel between September 2004 and September 2005, according to prosecutors. He also faces allegations of raping another woman on two separate occasions in November 2009 and November 2010 at a Beverly Hills hotel. Weinstein is also accused of sexually assaulting another woman in a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010 and sexually assaulting two women during separate incidents in 2013.
Will the accusers testify?
Mark Werksman (C) and Alan Jackson (R), Harvey Weinstein’s attorneys, walk by the Clara Shortridge Foltz Center for Criminal Justice.
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Mark Werksman (C) and Alan Jackson (R), Harvey Weinstein’s attorneys, walk by the Clara Shortridge Foltz Center for Criminal Justice.
David McNew / Getty Images
The court case documents indicate that the accusers will testify in court as “Jane Doe” number 1-5 to keep her identity a secret.
Judge Lisa B. Lench also allowed four other women to testify as witnesses of “wrongdoing”, according to Variety.
Lench ruled out other witnesses prosecutors hoped to use in his case, including Daryl Hannah and Rose McGowan.
McGowan, Hollywood film and television actress, he had previously accused Weinstein of raping her in 1997. He denied his claims, even though the two settled for $ 100,000 for the alleged incident. McGowan had attempted to sue Weinstein in a separate case, but that lawsuit was subsequently dismissed.
Attendance at the court will be lower
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein listens in court during a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles.
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Etienne Laurent / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
Former film producer Harvey Weinstein listens in court during a preliminary hearing in Los Angeles.
Etienne Laurent / POOL / AFP via Getty Images
The trial will take place at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in downtown Los Angeles. It is expected to last eight weeks, according to the Associated Press.
No major culprits will occur in this trial, as Weinstein remains behind bars. He will be held in prison and taken to court for trial.
In New York, Weinstein was seen by the media and hordes of protesters every time he arrived for his trial in Manhattan.
Only 24 journalists, including two cartoonists, are allowed into the courtroom each day, according to AP. In New York, dozens of people were allowed to follow the trial.
Years before #MeToo, Weinstein ruled Hollywood
Former film mogul Harvey Weinstein, in this 2017 photo, faces his second criminal trial in Los Angeles.
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Yann Coatsaliou / AFP via Getty Images
Former film mogul Harvey Weinstein, in this 2017 photo, faces his second criminal trial in Los Angeles.
Yann Coatsaliou / AFP via Getty Images
This second rape trial will be yet another reminder of just how low the former film mogul has fallen.
In his heyday, Weinstein was very influential in Hollywood thanks to his companies, Miramax and The Weinstein Company.
Films produced or distributed by those companies were at one point nominated for more than 340 Academy Awards, winning 81, before being expelled from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
In October 2017, Los New York Times and days later the New Yorker He has published exhibits on allegations that Weinstein had attacked dozens of women for several years. Accusations of this kind have often been whispered, even joked, but never before have they come to light in this way.
Weinstein’s ordeal is far from over.
This summer, Weinstein was charged with assaulting London in connection with an attack in 1996, according to local authorities.
Weinstein never admitted to having committed any wrongdoing.
