Harvey Weinstein’s Request To Get Rape Verdict Tossed Rejected By Manhattan D.A.: “The Motion Should Be Denied Without A Hearing,” Prosecutors Tell Judge

Harvey Weinstein will not get his day in court, if the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has anything to say about it.

Rogue jurors or not, Weinstein doesn’t deserve to have the rape retrial verdict from this past summer overturned and there’s no need for a hearing on the long Incarcerated producer’s request, states Alvin Bragg‘s team.

“Nearly four full months after the guilty verdict, defendant filed this motion to set aside the verdict …on the ground of claimed trial errors in the Court’s response to notes submitted by two jurors during jury deliberations,” prosecutors said in an opposition filing late Tuesday to the much accused and repeatedly convicted Weinstein’s latest legal move.

“The Court responded appropriately during trial to the two jurors’ intermittent complaints about sporadic tension during deliberations; invasive cross-examination of the jurors during their deliberations was not warranted; and the guilty verdict cannot be impeached with post-trial juror testimony,” the 62-page document signed by Assistant DA Matthew Colangelo adds.

“The motion should be denied without a hearing.”

With that taken under consideration so to speak, Judge Curtis Farber has said he will make a final ruling on Weinstein’s motion by December 22. On a busy docket, it won’t likely be the last decision the New York Supreme Court judge will be making regarding Harvey Weinstein, for better or worse.

On June 11, in the first of what will likely be two retrials on the now overturned 2020 trial where Weinstein was found guilty of sex crimes and sentenced to 23 years in a state prison,  the seven-woman, five-man found the often ailing 73-year-old guilty of a first-degree criminal sexual act against Miriam Haley and not guilty of the same act against Kaja Sokola after a week of fractious deliberations. A mistrial was declared on the inability of the openly warring jury to reach a decision charge of third degree rape involving accuser Jessica Mann.

Throughout the days of deliberations, the jury foreman came before Judge Farber in open court and told him of the tensions and threats allegedly happening behind closed doors. The judge essentially stressed the jurors work it out. Yet, when the foreman on June 12 refused to return to the jury room on the Mann charges, a mistrial was one of the only options.

Not that the mixed verdict saw any immediate relief for Weinstein, who due to an LA sex crimes guilty verdict in 2022, has remained at the Rikers Island or in local hospitals since an Empire State appeal court threw out his 2020 conviction in April 2024.

Out of the retrial that started in April, the single count of third-degree carries a maximum sentence of four years. However, each first-degree criminal sexual act count carries a maximum sentence of 25 years. As of right now, the D.A.’s office continues to insist they will pursue another retail on the Mann charges, but nothing has been set in stone yet.