People v Weinstein (2022 NY Slip Op 03576) People v Weinstein 2022 NY Slip Op 03576 Decided on June 02, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department Mazzarelli, J., Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports. Decided and Entered: June 02, 2022 SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION First Judicial Department Sallie Manzanet-Daniels Judith Gische Cynthia S. Kern Angela M. Mazzarelli Ellen Gesmer Ind. No. 2335/18, 2673/19 Appeal No. 15103 Case No. 2020-00590 [*1]The People of the State of New York, Respondent, vHarvey Weinstein, Defendant-Appellant. Defendant appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, New York County (James M. Burke, J.), rendered March 11, 2020, convicting him, after a jury trial, of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree and sentencing him to consecutive terms of 20 years and 3 years, respectively. Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins, PC, New York (Barry Kamins, John Leventhal and Diana Fabi Samson of counsel), for appellant. Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., District Attorney, New York (Valerie Figueredo, Alice Wiseman and Eleanor J. Ostrow of counsel), for respondent. Mazzarelli, J., Defendant Harvey Weinstein, a famous and highly successful movie and television producer, was charged with one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree against Miriam Haley, and rape in the first degree and rape in the third degree against Jessica Mann. He was also charged with two counts of predatory sexual assault, based on his alleged assaults of Haley and Mann, two women who were trying to make a name for themselves in the entertainment industry. Shortly before trial, the People were granted permission to include defendant's alleged rape of Annabella Sciorra, a well-known actor, in 1993, as an alternate predicate to each count of predatory sexual assault. As relevant here, the trial featured testimony from Haley, Mann, and Sciorra. In addition, three other women testified who were burgeoning actors. They alleged that they too were sexually assaulted by defendant. The People offered their testimony as Molineux evidence (People v Molineux, 168 NY 264 [1901]). Molineux evidence relates to crimes or bad acts committed by a criminal defendant that are not part of the pending case, but which helps to explain the conduct for which the defendant is being tried. Here the evidence was offered by the People because of the multifaceted nature of defendant's relationships with Haley and Mann. These relationships included episodes of consensual sex, some of which occurred after the alleged assaults, and behavior by complainants in the days and even years after the charged episodes, that to jurors could seem incongruent with what would be expected from a victim of a sex crime. The trial court agreed with the People that complainants' behavior before and after the sexual encounters risked masking the fact that the alleged assaults were nonconsensual, and that the Molineux witnesses placed the incidents in a more accurate context. Another witness was Dr. Barbara Ziv, …
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