Harvey Weinstein to face assault charges in California following conviction in New York

Embattled ex-film producer and convicted sex offender Harvey Weinstein is slated to appear in court Monday to face a new set of charges in Los Angeles, two years after being convicted of similar crimes in New York.

The trial will revolve around five women who have accused Weinstein, 70, of a series of sexual assaults that occurred between 2004 and 2013. According to Reuters, Weinstein is facing 11 charges related to these alleged assaults, and could potentially face life in prison in California if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty.

The new trial is set to begin five years after investigations by The New York Times and The New Yorker exposed repeated sexual abuse and rape allegations against Weinstein over three decades. In 2020, Weinstein was found guilty in New York of sex crimes related to these allegations, but was acquitted on the most severe charges. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

However, The Wall Street Journal noted the significant stakes of this subsequent trial, given that a New York appeals court has agreed to hear Weinstein's plea to reverse his prior conviction. If his 23-year sentence were to be thrown out, the trial in Los Angeles would take on significantly more weight, as it would then be the sole criminal proceeding determining if Weinstein walks free.

The judge in Los Angeles described the charges against Weinstein as "assaults of a sexual nature," and told jurors the trial will likely last about two months, per KTTV-TV.

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