All appellate judges agreed with this opinion.
In a statement, Weistein spokesman Juda Engelmayer said his legal team was “disappointed, but not surprised.”
“We are reviewing all of our options and will seek to appeal to the court and beyond.”
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg thanked the decision to uphold “a significant conviction that has changed the way prosecutors and courts conduct complex prosecutions of sexual offenders.”
Weinstein’s appeal was filed last April, about a year after he was convicted of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and third-degree rape. He is serving a 23-year sentence.
In a motion filed last year, Weinstein’s lawyers argued that the disgraced Hollywood mogul’s 2020 conviction should be quashed because his trial was tainted by several reasons, most notably biased. Judges and jurors.
A lawyer for Weinstein defended the appeal at a December hearing of a New York State Court of Appeals panel of judges, saying a juror had written a book involving “predatory men” and was misleading about the content of the book Court, should have been dismissed.
Assistant Manhattan District Attorney Valerie Figueiredo believes the book has nothing to do with Weinstein’s alleged conduct.
“It simply does not suggest that she has any type of bias or mindset that prevents her from delivering a fair and equitable decision,” Figueiredo told the five justices in the First Judiciary Division of the Supreme Court of New York.
Weinstein’s attorney, Barry Kamins, also argued that trial jurors were inundated with “bad evidence” that the judge should not have admitted.
“It was a test of his character,” Cummings said, adding later, “I don’t think there was a single case, I recall, where the pileup was so pronounced.”
Weinstein has maintained his innocence and denied all the allegations against him, sparking the #MeToo movement and encouraging women to speak up and share their experiences of sexual abuse and misconduct.
In the New York case, he was ultimately found guilty, largely based on the testimony of Miriam Haley and Jessica Mann. Haley testified that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in his Manhattan apartment in 2006, while Mann testified that he raped her in 2013 in what she said was an abusive relationship. He was convicted of predatory sexual assault and one count of first-degree rape.
.