Harvey Weinstein Pleads Not Guilty To Sex Crime Charges

LOWER MANHATTAN, NY — Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to sex crime charges Tuesday during his first Manhattan Criminal Court appearance since his indictment last week. Dressed in a dark suit and tie, the disgraced movie mogul sat mostly silent during his arraignment on two counts of rape and one count of criminal sexual act.

"He intends to vigorously fight these charges," Benjamin Brafman, Weinstein's attorney, said in court before Judge James Burke.

Weinstein entered the packed 13th floor courtroom after walking past a scrum of reporters waiting for him outside. He was released on $1 million bail after surrendering to police May 25.

Manhattan prosecutors have accused Weinstein of forcing one woman, who has been identified as the onetime actress Lucia Evans, to perform oral sex on him in 2004 and raping another unidentified woman in 2013.

Burke told Weinstein that he'd be required to appear at all future hearings, including any impending trial, or else they would proceed without him. Brafman said his client would be at every court date.

Brafman has until July 20 to file any pre-trial motions in the case.

Allegations that Weinstein raped, assaulted and harassed dozens of women over the course of his career as a film producer helped spark the international #MeToo movement against sexual violence.

A lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court last week included yet another accusation that Weinstein raped a woman named Melissa Thompson in 2011.

The class action complaint says Thompson sent video evidence of the assault last fall to Alex Spiro, who was then an associate at Brafman's law firm, without knowing the firm would represent Weinstein. Spiro left Brafman's firm shortly after Thompson reportedly contacted him.

Thompson is not directly involved with the criminal case against Weinstein, but she met with Manhattan prosecutors Monday — including Joan Illuzzi-Orbon, who is leading the case — to discuss her account of the rape and her interactions with Spiro, the New York Post reported.

Brafman said he knew nothing of the emails Thompson exchanged with Spiro, but agreed that he could not cross-examine her about their conversations if she became a witness in the case.

"I had zero knowledge that he was using my email to communicate with anyone who might one day possibly be a victim against Mr. Weinstein," Brafman said.

Brafman railed against the leak of Thompson's meeting with prosecutors to the press and the fact that Robert Boyce, the former NYPD chief of detectives, said for months that cops were ready to arrest Weinstein.

The high-profile defense lawyer doesn't shy away from the press himself. After a closed-door court hearing last week, he reportedly said Weinstein had a long-term relationship with the woman he's accused of raping. And after Weinstein's arraignment last month, he told the waiting media his client "did not invent the casting couch in Hollywood."

"However reprehensible the crime of rape, is I believe it’s equally reprehensible to falsely accuse someone of rape," Brafman said in court Tuesday.

Illuzzi-Orbon called it "extraordinarily presumptuous" for Brafman to assume law enforcement sources leaked details of the meeting with Thompson. She said prosecutors "take umbrage" to any "denigration" of the victims.

"Although the people have been very, very guarded in everything that we have said publicly, it was not the people who went out to the courtroom steps and started talking about a casting couch," Illuzzi-Orbon said.

(Lead image: Harvey Weinstein enters Manhattan Criminal Court with his attorney, Benjamin Brafman, on Tuesday, June 5, 2018. Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images)