Harvey Weinstein and attorney Benjamin Brafman arrive at court on June 5
Disgraced Hollywood movie producer Harvey Weinstein, Tuesday pled not guilty Tuesday to charges that he raped one woman and sexually assaulted another.
Looking ashen and wearing a dark suit and black tie, the disgraced movie mogul mumbled, “Not guilty” to felony charges of rape and criminal sex act before Judge James Burke in Manhattan Supreme Court.
He faces up to 25 years behind bars if convicted.
Weinstein was indicted on Friday on the charges related to two incidents — one in 2004, when he allegedly forced actress Lucia Evans to perform oral sex, and in 2013, when he allegedly raped a second woman at a DoubleTree hotel in Manhattan.
Weinstein’s attorney Benjamin Brafman blasted the charges in court.
“However reprehensible the crime of rape is, it is equally reprehensible to falsely accuse someone of rape,” he told the judge.
Joan Illuzzi, the top prosecutor handling the case, fired back against Brafman’s comments last month that “Weinstein did not create the casting couch in Hollywood.”
“It was not the people who went out to the courtroom steps and starting talking about a casting couch, undermining the seriousness of these charges,” she said.
“Any denigration of these victims, any playing-down of these victims, is inappropriate.”
Brafman swore off using the term “casting couch” but “not because it’s inappropriate but because of the outcry.”
“My job is to defend specific allegations of criminal conduct,” he explained, “not specific behavior” of Hollywood in general.
Untrepentant: A smiling, handcuffed Harvey Weinstein is led into a New York police precinct for his booking on Friday June 1
Brafman also said he will examine whether to ask to sever the two cases.
Late last month, Weinstein, 66, hobbled into a Manhattan precinct to turn himself in on the serious charges. The disgraced movie mogul was arraigned in court on Friday July 1, having been accused of sexually harassing and abusing more than 80 women — including “Boardwalk Empire” actress Paz de la Huerta, who claimed he raped her twice in 2010.
That lawsuit has expanded as attorney Michael F. Rubin has been accused of seeking to gain information from de la Huerta last fall, to the aid of Weinstein, while also discouraging her from pursuing criminal charges against her alleged rapist.
More than 80 women have accused the fallen moviemaker of sexual misconduct. Three more victims stepped up last month including Melissa Thompson who claims Weinstein raped her at New York’s Tribeca Grand Hotel, in 2011.
Melissa Thompson (left) with her lawyer Beth Fagen says Weinstein raped her at the Tribeca Grand Hotel, NY in 2011
On Tuesday, Weinstein arrived at court to a swarm of media and said nothing on his way in and out of the Centre Street building.
He only briefly smirked at photographers when he arrived.
Although Harvey Weinstein was seen smiling Friday as he was led out of an NYPD precinct in handcuffs, he had been shortly after being hit with a slew of sexual misconduct charges.
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