An appellate court has called into question Harvey Weinstein’s rape conviction over what one judge called “incredibly prejudicial testimony” from certain witnesses, Page Six reports.
According to the report, the Appellate Division, First Department five-judge panel heard oral arguments Wednesday as Weinstein’s lawyers sought to overturn the fallen movie mogul’s February 2020 conviction.
Some of the judges seemed skeptical of several of lower court Judge James Burke’s rulings to allow testimony of Weinstein’s prior bad acts to come into trial, including the additional women’s testimony — whose allegations weren’t included in the criminal case. Burke also gave prosecutors the green light to question Weinstein on unrelated bad deeds had he chosen to take the witness stand.
Appellate Judge Sallie Manzanet-Daniels called the non-charged testimony from the three additional women “incredibly prejudicial” and expressed concern for allowing the opportunity for testimony on Weinstein’s other bad acts to come in.
