Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to new charges as trial pushed back to January

The 67-year-old has denied the decades of allegations against him and was already facing five felony charges stemming from allegations of sexual assault brought by two different women related to alleged incidents in 2006 and 2013. The filmmaker has been out on $1 million bail.

Today’s new indictment is part of an effort by prosecutors to allow Sopranos actress Annabella Sciorra to testify against Weinstein, whom she claims raped her in her Manhattan apartment in the early 1990s. Weinstein is not being charged with raping Sciorra, but prosecutors want her to testify to help prove their predatory sexual assault case against Weinstein.

Weinstein’s trial was scheduled to begin in early September. Weinstein’s attorneys are fighting in appellate court to move the case outside of New York City to either Long Island or Albany, claiming the film mogul can’t get a fair trial because of the massive publicity surrounding the case. Prosecutors are working to keep the case where it is.

Judge James Burke, who is presiding over the case, set the new trial date for Jan. 6.

“Mr. Weinstein, do you want to go to trial?” the judge asked Weinstein on Monday.

“Not really,” Weinstein replied.

Sciorra, 59, explained her rape allegations against Weinstein in a 2017 interview with The New Yorker, where she described Weinstein entering her apartment late at night after dropping her off, cornering her into the bedroom, and then forcing himself on her. Sciorra said she didn’t tell anyone for months because she was ashamed.

In the new court filings, prosecutors also said the judge is allowing three new witnesses to testify against Weinstein about other allegations of assault that are not part of the indictment, according to the Wall Street Journal. Those three alleged incidents occurred in Manhattan in 2004 and in 2005 as well as in Beverly Hills, California in 2013.

If found guilty, Weinstein could face life in prison.