A judge has decided to consolidate indictments against Harvey Weinstein as the disgraced film producer prepares to go on trial again in New York.
During a hearing on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber ruled the latest indictment against 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 faced a new indictment charging him with sexual assault. Separately, he was preparing to be retried after his 2020 rape conviction was overturned . 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.