Film producer Harvey Weinsteinconvicted of sexual assault in 2020, was formally charged Wednesday by Manhattan prosecutors with a new first-degree sex crime and pleaded not guilty before a judge.

Weinstein, 72, appeared in Manhattan Criminal Court an hour late, in a wheelchair and condition worsened after recent heart surgery which prevented him from attending a hearing on the charge last week.

The prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the crime relates to sexual violence against a woman with whom he forcibly performed oral sex in a Manhattan hotel in 2006 and whose identity has not been established.

Deputy District Attorney Nicole Bloomberg said in the courtroom that she is seeking to consolidate this new case by repeating the 2020 trialwhose conviction was overturned on appeal earlier this year, and therefore believes the November target date is “unrealistic”.

Judge Curtis Farber set the motion calendar to run until mid-December and set a new hearing for Oct. 2, at which will decide on the possibility of combining cases and, possibly, the date of the trial, which the prosecutor proposed to hold “in January.”

Weinstein’s lead attorney, Arthur Aidala, later told the media that Your client is “lightened”as there were suggestions of three new crimes and finally one “(almost) 20 years ago”, but he assured that he wanted to appear in court “as soon as possible”.

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Aidala spoke out against the merger, saying prosecutors “took a man (Weinstein) and went looking for a crime.” perhaps because his original charge, brought up at the new trial, “collapsed”which covers third-degree rape and first-degree criminal sexual conduct.

One of the victims of the two crimes who went to trial in 2020, Jessica Mann, told the media Diversity that the new indictment shows that He was a “predator” and she was willing to testify against him again.

The one who was the most powerful producer in Hollywood, who He was wearing a suit and had two books under his arm.was temporarily transferred due to health problems to Bellevue Hospital, where his defense team is asking that he remain instead of the unpopular Rikers prison.

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“I’m glad I was able to go to court today, I was very convinced,” said Aidala, who He denounced to the judge the “horrible treatment” he received from Weinstein. Rikers for questions about temperature, nutrition and treatment of their illnesses, which require “19 medications a day.”

A former Miramax executive is serving a 16-year sentence for sex crimes that occurred in Los Angeles. (EFE)