NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced ex-movie mogul Harvey Weinstein faces mounting legal and health troubles some seven years after scores of women came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against him, helping launch the global #MeToo movement.
On Thursday, he was indicted on additional sex crimes charges in New York ahead of a retrial this fall. The grand jury decision remains sealed until he is formally arraigned in court.
Weinstein has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
Meanwhile, the 72-year-old remains hospitalized following emergency heart surgery — just the latest in an assortment of medical ailments that have cropped up while in custody.
Here’s a recap of where things stand:
In April, New York's highest court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges, ruling that the trial judge had unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.
A new trial was ordered and the tentative start date is Nov. 12.
One of the two accusers in that case has said she is prepared to testify against Weinstein again, but it remains to be seen if the other accuser will also take the stand once more.
Weinstein had been sentenced to 23 years in prison for that conviction.
Earlier this month, prosecutors disclosed that a Manhattan grand jury had reviewed evidence of up to three additional allegations against Weinstein.
They include alleged sexual assaults at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, now known as the Roxy Hotel, and in a Lower Manhattan residential building between late 2005 and mid-2006, and an alleged sexual assault at a Tribeca hotel in May 2016.
It is unclear when Weinstein will be formally charged on those allegations, given his current health condition. The next court hearing ahead of the retrial is slated for Sept. 18.
It is also unclear how the additional allegations will factor in the retrial. Prosecutors want to include the new charges in the retrial, but Weinstein’s lawyers oppose that, saying it should be a separate case.
In 2022, Weinstein was found guilty of rape, forced oral copulation and another sexual misconduct count after a one-month trial in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
During the trial, a woman testified that Weinstein appeared uninvited at her hotel room during the LA Italia Film Festival in 2013 and that Weinstein became sexually aggressive after she let him in.
Weinstein’s lawyers appealed the conviction in June, arguing the trial judge wrongly excluded evidence that the Italian model and actor had a sexual relationship with the film festival director at the time of the alleged attack.
Britain’s Crown Prosecution Service announced Sept. 5 that it had decided to drop two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.’’
In 2022, the agency authorized London’s Metropolitan Police Service to file the charges against Weinstein over an alleged incident that occurred in London in 1996. The victim was in her 50s at the time of the announcement.
Weinstein also faces several lawsuits brought by women accusing him of sexual misconduct.
Among the latest is one from actor Julia Ormond, who starred opposite Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall” and Harrison Ford in “Sabrina.” She filed the lawsuit last year in New York accusing Weinstein of sexually assaulting her in 1995 and then hindering her career.
The majority of lawsuits against Weinstein were brought to a close through a 2021 settlement as part of the bankruptcy of his former film company, The Weinstein Co. The agreement included a victims’ fund of about $17 million for some 40 women who sued him.
Weinstein’s lawyers have regularly raised concerns about his worsening health since being taken into custody following his 2020 conviction.
During his appearances in Manhattan court, he’s regularly transported in a wheelchair and his lawyers say he suffers from macular degeneration and diabetes that’s worsened due to the poor jailhouse diet.
Weinstein’s pericardiocentesis surgery last week was to drain fluid around his heart. His lawyers say his medical regimen causes him to retain water and that he must be constantly monitored to ensure the fluid buildup isn’t deadly.
A judge has granted his request to remain at Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital indefinitely instead of being transferred back to the infirmary ward at the city’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
Follow Philip Marcelo at twitter.com/philmarcelo.
A look at Harvey Weinstein’s health and legal woes as he faces more criminal charges
A look at Harvey Weinstein’s health and legal woes as he faces more criminal charges
FILE — Harvey Weinstein appears for a pretrial hearing in Manhattan criminal court, July 19, 2024, in New York. (Adam Gray/Pool Photo via AP, File)
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — More than 100 wildfires stretched thousands of firefighters to the limit in northern Portugal on Wednesday, with seven deaths since the worst spate of fires in recent years spread out of control over the weekend.
Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro declared a state of calamity for the hardest-hit areas late on Tuesday, invoking powers to mobilize more firefighters and civil servants. He also called on police investigators to redouble their efforts to find those who started the fires and pledged help for those who have lost their homes or have been evacuated.
“We are well aware that these difficult hours are not over yet,” Montenegro told the nation in a televised address. “We have to continue to give everything we have and ask for help from our partners and friends so that we can reinforce the protection of our people and property.”
The European Copernicus satellite service said that over 15,000 hectares (37,000 acres) had been scorched and a combined 13 kilometers (8 miles) of fire fronts had been detected as on Tuesday night. It added that an area home to 210,000 people was exposed to the fire risk.
The hot, dry conditions behind the outbreaks in Portugal coincided this week with flooding in central Europe. The European Union said Wednesday that the juxtaposed extreme weather phenomena are proof of a “climate breakdown. ”
Fellow European Union members Spain, France, Italy and Greece have committed two water-dropping aircraft each to help Portuguese firefighters.
Spain’s military is also sending 240 soldiers and vehicles from its emergency response battalions specialized in combating fires to its neighbor.
Thick grey smoke and the smell of burnt wood reached some 85 kilometers across the border into northwest Spain.
Montenegro made a special call for security forces to pursue both arsonists and any individuals who started a fire out of negligence. Portuguese national police said that they have arrested seven men suspected of having started wildfires in recent days. Authorities have prohibited the use of heavy farming equipment to reduce the risk of inadvertently starting a blaze.
Among the hardest hit areas is the district of Aveiro, south of the northern city of Porto, but several major blazes were also raging out of control in other wooded areas.
Authorities have yet to release figures for property damage or the number of evacuees, but Portuguese state broadcaster RTP has shown charred houses in rural villages and local residents trying to battle flames with buckets of water, hoses, and even large tree branches. Other televised images showed visibility reduced to a few meters as orange smoke enveloped the terrain.
Three firefighters died in their vehicle on Tuesday, while another had succumbed to what authorities called a “sudden illness” while on duty over the weekend. Three civilians have also perished, according to civil protection authorities.
Portugal was devasted by massive fires in 2017 that killed over 120 people.
Experts link the fires to both climate change and the abandonment of traditional farming and forestry professions that helped keep rural areas clear of underbrush that is now fuel for fires.
Joseph Wilson wrote from Barcelona, Spain. Teresa Medrano contributed from Pontevedra, Spain.
Clouds of smoke drift with the strong wind as fires rage on the hills around Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
A fire burns on a hillside near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
Fires rage on the hills around Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday night, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
A fire rages on the hills around Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday night, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
Wildfire advances near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
A woman tries to extinguish the flames near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
Firefighters work to control a fire next to warehouses in Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by wildfires fires, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
A car drives past a road closed by police as a wildfire burns close to it, near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Monday night, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
Vehicles drive past a fire burning by the road near Sever do Vouga, a town in northern Portugal that has been surrounded by forest fires, Monday night, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruno Fonseca)
