Holy moly I did not have this one on my 2024 Bingo card.
Harvey Weinstein's New York rape conviction was overturned by the state's highest court Thursday โ which ordered that the disgraced Hollywood mogul should face a new trial.
In a 4-3 ruling, the New York State Court of Appeals found that a Manhattan judge "erroneously" allowed testimony from three women whose allegations weren't connected to the case.
The trial judge also "compounded that error" by ruling that Weinstein, if he chose to testify, could be grilled on the witness stand "about those allegations as well as numerous allegations of misconduct that portrayed defendant in a highly prejudicial light."
"The remedy for these egregious errors is a new trial," the appeals court said.
The scandal around Weinstein kicked off the "Me Too" movement. Weinstein, 72, is serving a 23-year-sentence for two instances of sexual assault on women in the film industry.
If you're wondering if the guy gets to leave jail, well, no, because this wasn't the only case where he was convicted.
In spite of Thursday's decision, Weinstein will remain in prison because he was separately sentenced in February 2023 to 16 years in prison in a Los Angeles criminal case for raping an Italian model. She testified that he threw himself onto her after appearing uninvited outside her hotel room during an Italian film festival there in 2013.
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