Harvey Weinstein’s rape retrial is set for opening statements at a different #MeToo moment

NEW YORK AP Five years after Harvey Weinstein s original MeToo trial delivered a searing reckoning for one of Hollywood s bulk powerful figures the ex-studio boss is on trial again after an appeals court threw out the landmark rape conviction Opening statements are set for Wednesday in a trial that could take six weeks It s happening at the same Manhattan courthouse as his first trial and two accusers who testified then are expected to return But Weinstein s retrial is playing out at a different cultural moment than the first which happened during the height of the MeToo movement And along with the charges being retried he faces an additional allegation from a woman who wasn t involved in the first episode The jury counts seven women and five men unlike the seven-man five-woman panel that convicted him in and there s a different judge The MeToo movement which exploded in with accusations against Weinstein has also evolved and ebbed At the start of Weinstein s first trial chants of rapist could be heard from protesters outside TV trucks lined the street and reporters queued for hours to get a seat in the packed courtroom His lawyers decried the carnival-like atmosphere and fought unsuccessfully to get the trial moved from Manhattan This time though over five days of jury selection there was none of that Those realities coupled with the New York Court of Appeals ruling last year vacating his conviction and -year prison sentence because the judge allowed testimony about accusations Weinstein was not charged with are shaping everything from retrial legal strategy to the atmosphere in court Weinstein is being retried on a criminal sex act charge for allegedly forcibly performing oral sex on a movie and TV production assistant Miriam Haley in and a third-degree rape charge for allegedly assaulting an aspiring actor Jessica Mann in a Manhattan hotel room in Weinstein also faces a criminal sex act charge for allegedly forcing oral sex on a different woman at a Manhattan hotel in Prosecutors reported that the woman who hasn t been named publicly came forward days before his first trial but wasn t part of that scenario They reported they revisited her statements when his conviction was thrown out The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named as Haley and Mann have done Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denies raping or sexually assaulting anyone His acquittals on the two the bulk serious charges at his trial predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape still stand Lindsay Goldbrum a lawyer for the unnamed accuser explained Weinstein s retrial marks a pivotal moment in the fight for accountability in sex abuse cases and a signal to other survivors that the system is catching up and that it s worth speaking out even when the odds seem insurmountable This time around the Manhattan district attorney s office is prosecuting Weinstein through its Special Casualties Division which specializes in such cases after homicide veterans helmed the version At the same time Weinstein has added several lawyers to his defense association including Jennifer Bonjean who is involved in appealing his rape conviction in Los Angeles She helped Bill Cosby get his conviction overturned and defended R Kelly in his sex crimes development This trial is not going to be all about MeToo It s going to be about the facts of what took place Weinstein s lead attorney Arthur Aidala stated in recent months And that s a big deal And that s the way it s supposed to be But there has been certain talk of MeToo already A prosecutor inquired prospective jurors whether they d heard of the movement Preponderance explained that they had but that it wouldn t affect them either way Others went further A woman opined that not enough has been done as a aftermath of MeToo A man explained that he had negative feelings about it because his high school classmates had been falsely accused of sexual assault Another man declared he viewed MeToo like other social movements It s a pendulum It swings way one way then way the other way and then it settles None of them are on the jury