Jury selection began Monday in the Los Angeles trial of disgraced Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein, with five alleged victims expected to comment during the two-month trial.
The 70-year-old Pulp Fiction producer has been serving 23 years in New York City prison after being convicted of a series of sex crimes.
He now faces 11 additional charges, including sexual assault by restraint, forcible rape and forcible oral copulation against women in hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013.
If convicted, Weinstein – who has pleaded not guilty to all charges – could face more than 100 more years in prison.
Weinstein, who is in a wheelchair, wore a dark blue suit with a light blue tie when he appeared in court.
The potentially lengthy task of selecting a jury began Monday with Judge Lisa Lench overseeing the proceedings.
Widespread sexual abuse and harassment allegations against Weinstein exploded in October 2017, and his 2020 New York conviction was a milestone in the #MeToo movement.
In June, he lost a motion to have his sex crimes conviction vacated. He was also charged separately by British prosecutors for the indecent assault on a woman in London in 1996.
In all, nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Salma Hayek, have accused Weinstein of molestation or assault.
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The Los Angeles Times quoted Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman Monday as saying there would be testimonies from well-known personalities.
“Some of these victims will be recognized by people. Some of these women you’ve seen in movies, they’ve been in ad campaigns, some of them have had some success as actresses or models,” Werksman said.
The Times said one of the five accusers – who will all be officially known as “Jane Doe” – would be Jennifer Siebel Newsom, wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
“Like many other women, my client was sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein at an alleged business meeting, which turned out to be a trap,” her attorney, Elizabeth Fegan, told the newspaper.
“She intends to testify at his trial to seek some degree of justice for survivors and as part of her life’s work to improve the lives of women.”
Siebel Newsom previously wrote about Weinstein’s behavior in an essay published in 2017, but gave no details about the alleged assaults.
Weinstein says all of his sexual encounters were consensual, and his attorney told reporters that the Los Angeles allegations “dated many years ago” and were not “supported or corroborated by forensic evidence” or “credible witnesses.”
The New York Film Festival will this week premiere “She Said,” a film about the 2017 newspaper investigation into Weinstein that sparked the downfall of his film empire.
Before the allegations against him, the producer and his brother Bob were Hollywood’s ultimate power players.
They co-founded Miramax Films in 1979, a distribution company named after their mother Miriam and father Max, which was sold to Disney in 1993.
Among her hits was 1998’s “Shakespeare in Love,” for which Weinstein received an Academy Award for Best Picture. Over the years, Weinstein’s films have received more than 300 Academy Award nominations and 81 statuettes.
