MANHATTAN, N.Y. – A fresh chapter in the long-running legal saga of disgraced Hollywood power broker Harvey Weinstein opened this Tuesday, as jury selection got underway for his retrial on a lone rape charge that left a previous jury deadlocked last year. Regardless of how this new trial concludes, the 74-year-old former film producer will remain behind bars to serve sentences for other sexual violence convictions already on the books.
The charge at the center of this proceeding is third-degree rape, brought forward by Jessica Mann, an actress who appeared in the 2015 romantic feature *This Isn’t Funny*. Back in June 2024, a judge was forced to declare a mistrial on this count after a bitter conflict within the jury room led the jury foreperson to refuse to continue deliberations. This split outcome left the charge unresolved, prompting prosecutors to move forward with a second trial.
Presiding over the case is Judge Curtis Farber, who issued a series of preliminary rulings clearing the way for jury selection to launch this week. Farber also rejected the defense’s attempts to delay the start of the retrial, noting that repeated requests for postponement would unnecessarily prolong the process. Selecting 12 impartial jurors is expected to take multiple days, given the high-profile nature of the case and widespread public awareness of the surrounding allegations.
Ahead of Tuesday’s initial hearing, Weinstein’s spokesperson Juda Engelmayer shared the former mogul’s position with Agence France-Presse, saying, “He is hopeful and expects a fair process where the facts will vindicate him.”
Weinstein, who uses a wheelchair due to chronic ill health, already remains incarcerated for a 16-year sentence handed down in a California conviction for raping a European actress more than 15 years ago. That conviction is currently under appeal, with a scheduled hearing set for April 23. When he was wheeled into the Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday, observers noted he appeared gaunt. Clad in a dark suit and a textured grey tie, he was unshackled by court officers before potential jurors entered the room, and he responded slowly in a deep voice to confirm his agreement to a procedural legal step.
The Oscar-winning producer’s fall from grace began in 2017, when hundreds of women came forward with sexual assault and harassment allegations against him. The wave of allegations became a core catalyst for the global “MeToo” movement, which sparked a widespread reckoning with sexual misconduct in workplaces across industries. In the original 2020 New York trial, Weinstein was convicted of sexual assault against producer Miriam Haley and another criminal charge, resulting in a 23-year prison sentence. That entire conviction was thrown out by an appeals court in 2024, after judges found significant irregularities in how prosecution witnesses were presented to the jury. He is also appealing the separate sexual assault conviction against Haley that stood from the 2024 partial retrial, and was acquitted on a third charge involving actress Kaja Sokola in that proceeding.
For this retrial, Judge Farber has ruled that prosecutors cannot cross-examine Weinstein on the convictions that are currently under appeal, a key win for the defense. Weinstein has assembled an entirely new legal team for this proceeding, including high-profile defense attorney Marc Agnifilo – who currently represents rapper Sean “Diddy” Combs in his own ongoing legal matters – as well as attorney Jacob Kaplan.
In addition to his court battles, Weinstein has raised public claims about dangerous conditions in his current place of detainment at New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail complex. He says ongoing threats from other incarcerated people have left authorities with no option but to keep him in nearly constant solitary confinement. In an interview with *The Hollywood Reporter* earlier this year, Weinstein described the risks he says he faces behind bars: “I’m constantly threatened and derided. I wouldn’t last long out there.” He also claimed that he was attacked and severely injured by another inmate while waiting to use a prison telephone, saying, “He punched me hard in the face. I fell on the floor, bleeding everywhere. I was hurt really badly.”