Lawyers for disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein filed an appeal of his New York conviction for rape and an additional sex crime on Monday.
The 69-year-old producer was convicted in February 2020 following a trial in Manhattan Supreme Court.
He is serving a 23-year sentence, tried roughly two years following allegations of sexual misconduct by the producer. The trial escalated further allegations of high-profile offenders as a result of the #MeToo movement.
On Monday, lawyers for Weinstein showcased seven grounds for overturning the conviction of the former Hollywood mogul, who was involved in films such as Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love.
HARVEY WEINSTEIN FACING SIX ADDITIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES IN CALIFORNIA
The filing claims Weinstein was denied his right to be tried by an impartial jury when the trial judge denied his challenge to bar a prospective juror who wrote an autobiographical book on “the predations of older men against younger women, and who lied about the substance of the book” during jury selection, according to the appeal document obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“We have filed a 166-page brief, outlining several serious mistakes made during the course of the trial,” Weinstein’s appellate lawyer Barry Kamins said in a statement to CNBC.
“Simply put, the prosecution tried Weinstein’s character not his conduct,” Weinstein’s lawyers wrote in the appeal.
In addition to his case in Manhattan, the producer faces pending charges filed in January 2020 by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, which alleges he raped one woman and sexually assaulted another woman over a two-day period in 2013. He is also accused of raping a woman in a hotel room between September 2004 and September 2005. Investigators said he raped a second woman two separate times in November 2009 and November 2010.
The Los Angeles DA has a pending extradition request for Weinstein, who is being held in a New York state prison.
Another one of Weinstein’s attorneys, Arthur Aidala, told CNBC, “With a year behind us and emotions subsided, the transcript of the case confirms what we always believed: that Mr. Weinstein did not receive a fair trial.”
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins PC but did not immediately receive a response.
