The fight in Albany to override the implications of the Harvey Weinstein ruling

Daily Point

A clash of progressive ideals

It’s been three weeks since the state Court of Appeals overturned the conviction of Harvey Weinstein and it’s only three weeks until the end of the Albany legislative session. Is there enough time and resolve for lawmakers to preserve and strengthen the practice of using prior incidents as evidence in sexual assault cases, which the state’s top court greatly restricted in a stunning ruling that cast aside more than a century of legal precedent?

Amy Paulin, an Assembly member from Westchester, is the force behind the legislative effort. Paulin Wednesday held several Zoom calls with women lawyers and legislators that caused some buzz and movement, according to one Democrat, who earlier had thought the measure didn’t have a shot.

“It may come up in a briefing for the conference, people are paying attention,” one influential member told The Point. Paulin had introduced just such a law in 2022 and then an updated version in 2023 when the legal strategy Weinstein's lawyers were using to overturn his conviction became clear. Paulin’s updated bill tracked with established federal rules of evidence and law in 16 other states.

But it never had a sponsor in the State Senate until the Court of Appeals ruling on April 25 that outraged women's’ rights groups. On May 9, Deputy Senate Majority Leader Michael Gianaris attended a Manhattan news conference with Paulin at the office of the National Organization for Women to announce he was introducing a companion bill in his chamber. The measure was approved by a crucial Senate committee on Wednesday and Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins spoke positively about it at a conference meeting this week, according to a Senate spokesman.

But no predictions are being made that it would pass in the Senate. The spokesman, Mike Murphy, would only say, “We are looking at resolving this issue before the end of the session.”

The measure is dividing the state’s progressive coalition; women's rights advocates support it but pushback is coming from groups that want to increase protections for defendants in order to reduce convictions and incarceration. That is the concern of Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, who is usually opposed to any measure that strengthens the hand of prosecutors.

The bill would allow evidence of a defendant's alleged prior sexual offenses, even if those charges were not prosecuted, to be admissible at trial to show a pattern of behavior. Such instances only come up when multiple victims come forward and the allowance of such testimony would be subject to a judge’s discretion. This had been the legal precedent in New York until the Weinstein ruling. Such evidence is considered crucial in prosecuting certain domestic violence and acquaintance sexual assault cases, especially when the accuser and the accused know each other.

Paulin says the claim made by the Legal Aid Society that more minorities would be prosecuted is “bogus.” She said restoring the evidentiary rule would be most helpful in those cases where the accused knew their victim. She said opponents are “unwilling to compromise and talk to us which is unfortunate considering the high stakes for women in this state.”

Amanda Jack, policy director for the Criminal Defense Practice at the Legal Aid Society, said in a statement that such a law would unfairly prejudice Black and Latino defendants. She says the bill “will move us so far away from any sense of fairness and due process that it must be rejected as a dangerous undoing of our system of criminal trials.” In other news accounts, she had cited Weinstein as benefiting from his wealth and connections to successfully appeal his conviction, resources that defendants from low-income communities wouldn’t have in fighting their cases.

But Jane Manning, director of the Women’s Equal Justice Project, said there is no data from federal or state courts that more minority defendants or low-income ones are convicted at a higher rate if testimony about prior incidents is admissible. “Most victims of sexual assault are assaulted by men of the same race and class as the victims. It is important to realize the victims of sexual assault are disproportionally women and girls of color,” said Manning, who is focused on improving the justice system’s response to sexual assault.

“The people who would be helped by the new legislation would be women and girls of color, ” said Manning.

Fred Thiele, the only Assembly member from Long Island publicly supporting the bill, acknowledged there is a built-in resistance in the chamber to anything perceived as strengthening the hand of a prosecutor. He recalled that last year he was finally able to get a bill passed that makes it easier for prosecutors to file charges of aggravated motor vehicle driving if the accused had five prior arrests for driving without a license, a reduction from 10 prior arrests.

“It got signed but it took a couple of years, and it was a slog,” said Thiele, who is retiring this year.

— Rita Ciolli rita.ciolli@newsday.com

Pencil Point

Higher-ed anxiety

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Final Point

Can Rudy’s coffee wake up his income?

Last week, Rudy Giuliani was ejected from his paid WABC radio gig by the station’s owner, John Catsimatidis — who is always tolerant and supportive of right-of-center speech that is the mainstay of the talk station. The long-ago mayor of New York City tweeted he “was FIRED for refusing to give in to their demand that I stop talking about the 2020 Presidential Election.”

The suspended lawyer’s latest hollow claim of political martyrdom comes despite the fact that, as Catsimatidis revealed, Giuliani repeatedly violated an agreement barring him from spreading claims that fraud caused Donald Trump to lose the 2020 presidential election, which is still untrue no matter how much anyone says otherwise. One year ago, the lie cost News Corp. a $787.5 million settlement with the Dominion election machine company, which was maligned based on a nonexistent “rigging” of results.

In Georgia, Giuliani is under indictment for his role in the push to compel lawmakers in states Trump lost to illegally appoint impostors to the Electoral College. He’s on the hook for $148 million for making up and spreading senseless and far-fetched stories about two election workers. Meanwhile, Arizona prosecutors are seeking to serve him with an indictment handed down there last month. So what to do when you’re turning 80 in two weeks, you’ve filed for bankruptcy, and you lack verbal self-control? Why, follow the old American adage, “Sell-sell-sell!” Previously, Giuliani has peddled 9/11 T-shirts, gold bars, and even personal online birthday greetings.

Now it’s coffee.

A new online ad features the image of Giuliani in a lounge chair. His message reads: “I’ve moved at a fast pace, and have had many different roles in life, but the one constant thing has been a good cup of coffee, which is now proven to have health benefits. Please enjoy my delicious fresh roasted specialty coffee. It’s quality you can trust.”

It’s $30 for a two-pound bag, in bold, decaf and “morning” blends. The first 100 bags are signed by the man himself, the product website says, and are due to begin shipping in June. One variety has a tag line “fighting for justice,” and another, “America’s mayor.” For him, there’s always an echo of Trump these days; the former president has been touting sneakers and bibles.

Giuliani’s most recent in-the-limelight girlfriend, TV doctor Maria Ryan, posted an ad for the coffee on X, boasting of its ambiguous health benefits and talking about products from “non-GMO, really organic bean farms.”

Perhaps due to discretion, the ads do not mention such benefits as helping Giuliani sober up or keeping his ex-client Trump awake in court.

— Dan Janison dan.janison@newsday.com

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