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NYC prosecutors intend to bring new sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein ahead of retrial By PHILIP MARCELO July 9, 2024
NEW YORK (AP) — Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday that they intend to bring new sexual assault charges against Harvey Weinstein as they anticipate a November retrial for the disgraced media mogul.
Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said in court that prosecutors are actively pursuing claims of rape that occurred in Manhattan within the statute of limitations.
She said some potential survivors that were not ready to step forward during Weinstein’s first New York trial have indicated they are now willing to testify.
But when pressed by the judge, Blumberg said prosecutors have not yet brought their findings to a grand jury. She also said she could not provide the court a timeline for when their investigation will be complete.
“The People are still investigating in a trauma-informed manner,” she said. “That is an ongoing process.”....
Among those in the packed courtroom Tuesday was Jessica Mann, the former actor Weinstein was convicted of raping his 2020 trial.
Mann did not speak to reporters but prosecutors have said she is prepared to testify against Weinstein again.
Weinstein’s other accuser, Mimi Haley, did not attend Tuesday’s hearing and has expressed reluctance about going through the trauma of testifying again. Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, said in an email Tuesday that her client has not yet made her decision about participating in the retrial.
The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named, as Haley and Mann have.
Weinstein has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual....
In April, New York’s highest court threw out Weinstein’s rape conviction after determining the trial judge unfairly allowed testimony against him based on allegations from other women that were not part of the case.
The ruling reopened a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. The #MeToo era began in 2017 with a flood of allegations against Weinstein.
Weinstein, who had been serving a 23-year sentence in New York, was also convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of another rape and is still sentenced to 16 years in prison in California. But in an appeal filed last month in California’s Second District Court of Appeal, Weinstein’s lawyers argued he did not get a fair trial in Los Angeles.
https://apnews.com/article/harvey-weinstein-sexual-misconduct-retrial-metoo-3d7151343d25ee65c3cb7849100e4fa0
Lawyer for megachurch pastor blamed 12-year-old for initiating ‘inappropriate’ sexual conduct Letters sent in 2007 by a lawyer for Robert Morris shed light on how the pastor explained his past sexual behavior with a child — and who else might have known about it. Pastor resigns from church after child sex abuse allegation July 9, 2024 By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton
Lawyer for megachurch pastor blamed 12-year-old for initiating ‘inappropriate’ sexual conduct Letters sent in 2007 by a lawyer for Robert Morris shed light on how the pastor explained his past sexual behavior with a child — and who else might have known about it. Pastor resigns from church after child sex abuse allegation July 9, 2024 By Mike Hixenbaugh and Antonia Hylton
In 1982, pastor Robert Morris was a 21-year-old husband and father who traveled the country telling young people about Jesus. Cindy Clemishire was a 12-year-old girl who dressed in flowery pink pajamas and still liked to play with Barbie dolls.
On Christmas that year, Morris — who would go on to found Gateway Church in Southlake, Texas, and become a leading figure in the American evangelical movement — began what he would later describe as “inappropriate sexual behavior” with Clemishire while he was staying at her parents’ home in Oklahoma. Clemishire said Morris told her to come see him in his room before bed, and she was the type of girl who listened to instructions from trusted adults.
But 25 years later, when Clemishire hired an attorney and threatened to sue Morris, accusing him of repeatedly molesting her as a child, a lawyer representing Morris responded by blaming Clemishire for what happened to her, according to 2007 correspondence obtained by NBC News.
“It was your client,” wrote lawyer J. Shelby Sharpe, referring to Clemishire at age 12, “who initiated inappropriate behavior by coming into my client’s bedroom and getting in bed with him, which my client should not have allowed to happen.
The Feb. 6, 2007, letter was one in a series of exchanges that year between Sharpe and Gentner Drummond, a lawyer who represented Clemishire at the time. Clemishire said in an interview last week she had been seeking $50,000 in restitution from Morris to cover the cost of counseling. Morris, through his lawyer, instead offered to pay $25,000, but the talks fell apart, Clemishire said, because she was not willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement.
Drummond, who is now Oklahoma’s attorney general, confirmed Clemishire’s description of the 2007 negotiations and declined to comment further.
