Harvey Weinstein was taken to a New York City courtroom on Tuesday morning to face his fourth rape trial in six years.
Weinstein is accused of assaulting Jessica Mann, who has testified in two previous trials that the producer raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in March 2013.
The disgraced film mogul was convicted of third-degree rape of Mann in 2020, but that conviction was overturned by the state’s highest court.
In a retrial last summer, jurors found the former Miramax boss guilty of attacking another victim, Miriam Haley, but deadlocked on a charge related to Mann, forcing prosecutors to try the charge a third time.
according to DiversityAssistant District Attorney Candace White told jurors in her opening statement that the case comes down to “power, control and manipulation.”
Mann met Weinstein at an engagement party in February 2013, six weeks before the alleged rape. White said that Mann, an aspiring actor at the time, was “poached” by the powerful producer.
Defense attorney Jacob Kaplan argued that the case was about “consent and choice”, and cited several emails Mann sent to Weinstein, in which he wrote, “I appreciate everything you do for me,” and “Miss you, big man.”
Kaplan added, “This case would go against his own words.”
In 2022, at a trial in Los Angeles, Weinstein was convicted of raping an Italian model and sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Since his first conviction in 2020, he has been held in prisons in New York and Los Angeles, and for a time in a New York state prison.
