Harvey Weinstein says he did not get a fair trial, according to an appeal his lawyers filed in New York on Monday, April 5, and obtained by E! News.
The disgraced movie producer, 69, was sentenced to 23 years in prison in 2020, after a jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting a former production assistant, Mimi Haleyi, in 2006 and raping actress Jessica Mann in the third degree in 2013.
His appeal alleges he was denied his constitutional right to receive a fair trial with an impartial jury. It includes seven points and requests a reversal on both convictions and a dismissal of the charge of third degree rape.
The document claims the court refused to dismiss a juror “who had written an autobiographical book about the predations of older men against younger women, and who lied about the substance of the book” during questioning, according to the appeal.
Weinstein’s attorneys—Aidala, Bertuna & Kamins—state in the appeal that they made a motion, which was denied, to discharge the juror as “grossly unqualified,” after she allegedly lied to the court about reviewing a book with a storyline that “mirrored” the topics of the trial.