NEW YORK 鈥 Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been indicted on additional sex crimes charges ahead of his retrial in New York, Manhattan prosecutors said at a hearing Thursday.
The indictment will remain under seal until Weinstein鈥檚 arraignment on the new charges, which is scheduled for Sept. 18.
Weinstein, 72, is recovering from emergency heart surgery Monday at a Manhattan hospital to remove fluid on his heart and lungs and was not at Thursday's hearing.
Prosecutors retrying Weinstein鈥檚 overturned rape conviction disclosed last week that they had begun presenting to a grand jury evidence of up to three additional allegations against Weinstein, dating as far back as the mid-2000s.
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.
People are also reading…
Because the indictment is under seal, it was not known whether the new charges involved some or all of the additional allegations.
Prosecutors had聽been seeking to retry Weinstein after New York鈥檚 highest court, the Court of Appeals, overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges earlier this year and ordered a new trial.
It remains to be seen whether the new charges will be included in the retrial, as prosecutors hope, or handled as a separate case by the court.
The new charges come after prosecutors in Britain announced last week that they would no longer pursue charges of indecent assault against Weinstein, who was the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement in 2017 when women began going public with accounts of his behavior.
Weinstein, who co-founded the film and television production company Miramax, has long maintained that any sexual activity was consensual.
At Thursday鈥檚 hearing, Judge Curtis Farber ruled that because of Weinstein鈥檚 health concerns, he will be allowed to remain at Bellevue Hospital indefinitely instead of being moved back to the city鈥檚 Rikers Island jail complex.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg鈥檚 office had signaled for months that new charges were imminent against Weinstein, who was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, having produced films such as 鈥淧ulp Fiction鈥 and 鈥淭he Crying Game.鈥
In July, prosecutors told a judge they were actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan within the statute of limitations.
They said some potential accusers who were not ready to come forward during Weinstein鈥檚 first New York trial had indicated they were now willing to testify.
New York鈥檚 highest court threw out Weinstein鈥檚 2020 conviction in April after determining the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.
Prosecutors have said one of the accusers in that case, Jessica Mann, is prepared to testify against him again. It鈥檚 unclear if the second accuser, Mimi Haley, would participate. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, declined to comment.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann did.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York when his conviction was quashed, was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape.
His 16-year prison sentence in that case still stands, but his lawyers appealed in June, arguing he did not get a fair trial in Los Angeles. Weinstein has remained in custody in New York鈥檚 Rikers Island jail complex while awaiting the retrial.