Hollywood stars charged for sexual abuse and misconduct

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was prosecuted in both New York and California after dozens of women came forward to publicly accuse him of sexual assault.

In the Los Angeles case, a jury convicted Weinstein in 2022 of raping and sexually assaulting one of four women he was charged with abusing. The three guilty counts involved an Italian actor and model who said Weinstein appeared at her hotel room, uninvited, during a Los Angeles film festival in 2013.

Weinstein, 72, was later acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by a massage therapist who treated him at a hotel in 2010. The jury was unable to reach a decision on counts involving two other accusers. A mistrial was declared on those counts.

In the New York case, Weinstein was initially convicted in 2020 of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another, followed weeks of harrowing and graphic testimony from a string of accusers. But his 23-year prison sentence and conviction was overturned earlier this year, with New York’s highest court saying the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony based on allegations that were not part of the case.

A retrial has been scheduled and Manhattan prosecutors this week brought a new indictment with additional allegations from another woman. The trial had been scheduled to start in November but is now unlikely to begin until 2025.

Weinstein, who also faces several civil lawsuits brought by women accusing him of sexual misconduct, denies sexually assaulting anyone and is appealing his California conviction.