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Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein’s second criminal trial over the alleged sexual assaults of women, at least one occurring 18 years ago, is set to take place in Los Angeles this week.
Jury selection begins Monday.
The start of the Los Angeles criminal trial comes five years after the first stories exposing his illicit actions against women were first published by The New York Times and The New Yorker. Those stories also helped the #MeToo movement expand, eventually taking down other powerful men in Hollywood and beyond.
The 70-year-old Weinstein is already serving a 23-year sentence tied to his 2020 conviction in New York for charges of criminal sexual act and rape in the third degree.
The Los Angeles trial is significant, however, as Weinstein is in the process of appealing his New York conviction. If found guilty, the Los Angeles verdict could add decades to his prison time. But if his New York appeal is successful, the Los Angeles verdict could be the only substantial reason he stays in prison.What is different about this L.A. case?
In Los Angeles, Weinstein is facing 11 charges that he sexually assaulted women in separate incidents over a span of nearly a decade, a larger case than the one argued in New York.
Weinstein was first charged with sexual assault in Los Angeles in 2020 just as his New York trial was getting started. He was eventually indicted in Los Angeles in July 2021 for four counts of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of sexual penetration by use of force.
