New York court overturns Harvey Weinstein rape conviction

We are following the latest news for you this hour. We want to take you to New York now, where the state's highest

court

overturned movie producer Harvey Weinstein's

rape

conviction

. The New York Court of Appeals found that the trial judge prejudiced Weinstein with inappropriate decisions including a decision to allow the women to testify about allegations that were not part of the case. Weinstein was a powerful and well-known man in the entertainment industry, as you know, and prosecutors say he abused his power to take advantage of several aspiring actresses. He would like to force them to have unwanted sexual encounters onstein was arrested in 2018 and charged with

rape

and criminal sexual assault.

He was convicted in 2020 of both felonies. Prosecutors say the testimony of those women other than those whose claims form the basis of the criminal case. The charges spoke to Weinstein's State of Mind to use forcible compulsion. Weinstein's spokesperson said they are pleasantly surprised as they study the ruling that Weinstein is also convicted of sex crimes in Los Angeles and sentenced to 16 years in prison there because he was already convicted in California. He will not be released but transferred to the custody of prison authorities in California. There is a lot to discuss here. Let's bring in our collaborator and former NYPD Chief of Detectives, Bob Boyce, and also our legal collaborator, Brian Buckmire.

Bob first for you, I mean, you were the leader. Investigator of this case against Weinstein there in New York, what is his reaction to this decision? He is upset because we have worked a lot on this and when you look at it, it is a strategy that achieved this setback, not the witnesses found them incredible and they did a great job in their heroic stance in testifying against Mr. Weinstein, so it is a difficult time for them to do it, they will have to do it again and it is not fair for them to go through all that all the time. that testimony in that public Clare, but that's what's going to happen so, uh, everyone is very upset in New York right now about this Brian, what do you think I mean, what influenced this decision of the appeals

court

?

Being one of the lawyers who sat and watched this trial, it was the fact that there were too many witnesses, what we call malenos, or witnesses of uncharged wrongdoing, meaning they were alleged victims in a case, but none of their testimonies were attributed to a charge that they could. testify at length and I'm sorry, the court saw that the judge at trial made the wrong decision in allowing that and the issue is that he could have been convicted because of the propensity information, not necessarily because of the allegations that came up, etc. Bob's point, yes, the investigation was excellent, the witnesses were strong, but the strategy with which prosecutors approached this and also the fact that Weinstein might not have been able to testify because of the evidence against him, the court said that must be reversed. then Bob The Manhattan DA's office could decide to retry him.

What is the likelihood of that happening given today's appeals court decision? Do you think it's a good idea? I think it has to be done. This is a fundamental case for me. two moves and he started the whole thing, um, he started Domino stuff of people in power abusing women, so I don't see how he doesn't do it and I think he's already committed to that, however, that's going to take a while, keep in mind that Mr. Weinstein is expected to serve 16 years in California, so he will not be released from prison, but these things cannot happen, we cannot let them happen, he has to be tried again, Brian, if you were in the case and if We see a case. new trial uh and and and that was you, um, having to make an argument in court this time for Weinstein.

I mean, what's going on? What does he say? Well. I think the argument is that the number of unindicted witnesses or unindicted alleged victims who testified was too many. high, so now from the defense point of view it is a reevaluation of the case. To Bob's point, the victims and we'll call them victims even though the case was overturned and because the jury determined they were victims, they were believed. And so the question is: Will their testimony lack some kind of force because they won't have four other women who will also testify in a similar way or will they have a potential defense here because there may be fewer alleged victims testifying?

It looks a little better for the defense here, but the only question is how much better. Okay, Bob Brian, I appreciate it, thank you very much.