Getting it right: Weinstein charges require careful prosecution
Since the avalanche of accusations against Harvey Weinstein in 2017, we’ve always suspected that there were probably more incidents of sexual misconduct against the former movie power player than were publicly acknowledged.
Now, one more such allegation has come to light in the form of a new indictment against him, involving a purported assault of a woman in Manhattan in 2006.
Weinstein has pleaded not guilty to the charge, setting up yet another trial over whether the one time film producer leaned on his wealth and clout to prey on young women.
This new charge comes after the New York’s highest court earlier this year overturned his 2020 convictions for sex crimes on the basis that the trial judge erred in allowing testimony from other women whose accusations were not themselves at issue in the trial. Of course, all of this has taken years to wend its way through investigative stages and the courts, much to many observers’ chagrin.
We understand that all the legal maneuvering and starts and stops are frustrating to people who want to see Weinstein — who became No. 1 enemy of the #MeToo movement and the broader public awareness of powerful men abusing their positions of authority — face accountability. Yet the wheels of justice grind slowly, and there are good reasons for that; if prosecutors can speed cases along too quickly or override evidentiary rules for Weinstein, they can do so with far more ease for the millions of defendants without deep pockets for high-powered legal teams.
None of it means the toppled mogul is off the hook; the fact that Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is bringing a completely new case now, years after Weinstein’s misconduct burst out into the limelight, means that law enforcement is continuing to look for evidence of crimes with purpose and diligence. In addition to this indictment, Weinstein will be retried over his overturned convictions and remains a convicted felon for sex crimes in Los Angeles as well.
We hope that this same gusto can be brought to investigation of sexual harassment and assault in general, crimes that often go unreported in part because of the sense that police departments and prosecutors don’t take them seriously enough. By the same token that we shouldn’t excuse procedural missteps just because Weinstein is seen as such a particularly malevolent figure, we shouldn’t aggressively pursue cases against him while letting others fall by the wayside.
On that front, we’re heartened by the fact that powerful people have continued to face legal scrutiny and consequences for this conduct even after some of the public furor around it has died down. Singer R. Kelly has now been sentenced to multiple decades in prison for a pattern of sexual misconduct dating back to the 1990s and Sean “Diddy” Combs was arrested by federal agents on a number of charges, including sex trafficking.
Weinstein was long ago convicted in the court of public opinion for the litany of heinous acts for which he will now forever be known. But getting there via the legal process means crossing every t and dotting every i, which is necessary to make these convictions stick and protect all our due process rights.
