A judge has decided to consolidate indictments against as the disgraced film producer prepares to go on trial again in New York.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber ruled the Weinstein will be consolidated with previous charges against him for an upcoming trial. The judge said in his decision that the two indictments could be combined because they both “contain one count of the exact same statutory offense,” criminal sexual act in the first degree.
In September, Weinstein charging him with sexual assault. Separately, he was preparing to be retried after his 2020 rape conviction . An appeals court in April determined that a judge should not have allowed testimony from women whose allegations weren’t part of the case, known as Molineux witnesses.
Weinstein’s team had opposed consolidating the two indictments, arguing this would expose him “to undue prejudice by virtue of the very propensity evidence that necessitated a reversal of the first trial.” Prosecutors, meanwhile, said that combining the two indictments would be more efficient and that they plan to call many of the same witnesses for both.
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for Weinstein, told USA TODAY in a phone call on Wednesday that “this ruling is a way to help the prosecution backdoor the Molineux (witnesses) that they weren’t allowed in the appeals court,” adding, “We are going to challenge it if possible.”
Weinstein was in the courtroom for Wednesday’s hearing, sitting in a wheelchair almost two months after he was for emergency heart surgery in September. He to the new charge, which stems from the producer’s alleged sexual assault of a woman in a Manhattan hotel in 2006. He has denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex.
“Thanks to this survivor who bravely came forward, Harvey Weinstein now stands indicted for an additional alleged violent sexual assault,” Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg previously said.
Lindsay M. Goldbrum, an attorney for the anonymous accuser, said in a statement Wednesday that “we are pleased with the court’s decision to consolidate the two indictments.”
“While Ms. Doe has previously chosen not to publicly share this painful portion of her experience, she has always remained consistent in her conversations with the Manhattan DA’s office and maintains that this encounter was not consensual,” Goldbrum said. “Ms. Doe wants her privacy to be respected while she prepares for her testimony.”
Contributing: Reuters
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:
This article originally appeared on www.aol.com: www.aol.com https://www.aol.com/judge-consolidates-harvey-weinstein-indictments-173156251.html