A look at past and future cases Harvey Weinstein has faced as his New York conviction is thrown out

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvey Weinstein's landmark New York sexual assault conviction was thrown out by an appeals court Thursday, and most of the dozens of civil cases filed against him since he became a central target in the #MeToo movement in 2017 have either been settled or dismissed.

That doesn't mean the 72-year-old disgraced movie mogul and his lawyers don't have plenty of court time ahead. Prosecutors in Manhattan say they plan to retry him, and several other cases remain unresolved.

Here's a look at those, and at some that have come and gone:

Weinstein was found guilty in 2022 in Los Angeles of the rape and sexual assault of Italian actor and model Evgeniya Chernyshova, and his 16-year sentence in that case will keep him in prison despite the reversal of the New York verdict.

Of the four women he was charged with assaulting in California, this was the only case that led to a conviction. Weinstein insisted at his sentencing that he never met her.

An appeal looms there too, and Weinstein's attorneys will make the same arguments as in the New York case about witnesses testifying to assaults he was not charged with.

Los Angeles prosecutors said Thursday that the judge at their trial acted well within state law in the testimony she allowed. Weinstein's lawyers must make their case in a filing by May 20.

Weinstein could be brought to California to serve the sentence in that case, or he could remain behind bars in New York while awaiting retrial.

Chernyshova also is the plaintiff in one of the last remaining civil lawsuits against Weinstein. Just weeks after the guilty verdict, she sued over emotional distress from her 2013 rape at a Beverly Hills hotel.

Weinstein's attorneys argued at his sentencing in the criminal case that the lawsuit constituted proof that she lied on the stand when she said she sought no financial gain from coming forward with her allegations.

The civil case remains in its early stages. At a hearing Thursday, just a few hours after the New York decision was revealed, a judge tentatively granted Chernyshova's request that it be put on hold while the California criminal appeal plays out.

Like other actors including Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino, Julia Ormond, briefly a major star in the 1990s, has alleged in a lawsuit that Weinstein railroaded her career.

Ormond, who appeared opposite Brad Pitt in “Legends of the Fall” and Harrison Ford in “Sabrina,” filed her suit in New York last October. In it she accused Weinstein of committing sexual battery against her in 1995 and then working to tarnish her reputation in Hollywood.

The newest of the known lawsuits against Weinstein, it came years after most of the others. Ormond took advantage of New York's Adult Survivors Act, which allowed a temporary window for people who allege sexual assault to file past the state’s normal deadlines.

Weinstein's lawyers denied her allegations.

Judd, who became a hugely important figure in the takedown of Weinstein and larger #MeToo movement when she went on the record in the original New York Times story about his sexual misconduct, sued him in 2018. Like Ormond she alleged Weinstein did major damage to her career by smearing her to other filmmakers in retaliation for rejecting his sexual advances.

Her lawsuit, which came after director Peter Jackson said Weinstein told him 20 years earlier that Judd was a “nightmare” to work with when Jackson was considering her for a major role in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, accused Weinstein of defamation, sexual harassment and violating California’s unfair competition labor law.

A federal judge in 2019 threw out the sexual harassment claim, saying Weinstein and Judd, as a producer and actor discussing prospective projects, didn’t have the kind of employment relationship that the law covers. California lawmakers later expanded the statute to explicitly cover producers and directors.

Judd’s lawsuit is now on long-term hold. A judge administratively closed it last year, but it can be reopened at any time if her legal team makes a motion.

Some suits were thrown out, including one from actor Rose McGowan, one of Weinstein's earliest and most prominent accusers. She alleged he engaged in racketeering when he worked to silence her and harm her career before she publicly accused him of rape, which he has denied.

McGowan served as her own attorney in the case after firing her lawyers. In 2021, a federal judge dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning it cannot be refiled.

The vast majority of lawsuits against Weinstein, by women from office assistants to successful actors, were brought to a close through a settlement in 2021 as part of the bankruptcy of his former film company, The Weinstein Co.

The agreement included a victims' fund of about $17 million for some 40 women who sued him. The amount was approved by a majority, but lawyers for some of them, including actor Dominique Huett, objected to it, calling the individual shares “pathetically meager” for the damage Weinstein did.

Also part of the settlement was former actor and screenwriter Louisette Geiss, the lead plaintiff in a Manhattan class action suit. She sued Weinstein in 2017, accusing him of attempting to force her to watch him masturbate in a hotel bathroom in 2008.

“In the end, you see that the judicial system is still not in the right place to take him down. It’s really society that takes him down," she told The Associated Press the year after the settlement.

The AP does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, as all of the women named here have done.

FILE - Harvey Weinstein arrives at a Manhattan courthouse for jury deliberations in his rape trial, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, in New York. New York's highest court has overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

FILE - Harvey Weinstein arrives at the courthouse during jury deliberations in his rape trial, Monday, Feb. 24, 2020, in New York. New York's highest court has overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial.(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

FLE - A group of women who have spoken out about Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein's sexual misconduct and who refer to themselves as the "Silence Breakers," face the media during a news conference at Los Angeles City Hall, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2020, in Los Angeles. New York's highest court on Thursday, April 25, 2024, has overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

FILE - Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court in Los Angeles, Oct. 4 2022. New York’s highest court has overturned Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial. The Court of Appeals ruled Thursday, April 25, 2024 that the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced him with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case. (Etienne Laurent/Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - Harvey Weinstein leaves a Manhattan courthouse after closing arguments in his rape trial in New York, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. New York's highest court has overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction and ordered a new trial. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Russia on Monday threatened to strike British military facilities and said it would hold drills simulating the use of battlefield nuclear weapons amid sharply rising tensions over comments by senior Western officials about possibly deeper involvement in the war in Ukraine.

After summoning the British ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Moscow warned that Ukrainian strikes on Russian territory with U.K.-supplied weapons could bring retaliatory strikes on British military facilities and equipment on Ukrainian soil or elsewhere.

The remarks came on the eve of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a fifth term in office and in a week when Moscow on Thursday will celebrate Victory Day, its most important secular holiday, marking its defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

The drills are a response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement.

It was the first time Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, although its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons include air bombs, warheads for short-range missiles and artillery munitions and are meant for use on a battlefield. They are less powerful than the strategic weapons — massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles and are intended to obliterate entire cities.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric expressed concern that various parties have been talking about issues regarding nuclear weapons more and more recently.

“Current nuclear risks are at an alarmingly high level,” Dujarric said. “All actions that could lead to miscalculation, escalation with catastrophic consequences, must be avoided.”

The Russian announcement was a warning to Ukraine’s Western allies about becoming more deeply engaged in the 2-year-old war, where the Kremlin's forces have gained an upper hand amid Ukraine's shortage of manpower and weapons. Some of Ukraine’s Western partners have previously expressed concern that the conflict could spill beyond Ukraine into a war between NATO and Russia.

French President Emmanuel Macron repeated last week that he doesn’t exclude sending troops to Ukraine, and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron said Kyiv’s forces will be able to use British long-range weapons to strike targets inside Russia. Some other NATO countries providing weapons to Kyiv have balked at that possibility.

The Kremlin branded those comments as dangerous, heightening tension between Russia and NATO. The war already has placed significant strain on relations between Moscow and the West.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that Macron’s recent statement and other remarks by British and U.S. officials had prompted the nuclear drills.

“It’s a new round of escalation,” Peskov said, referring to what the Kremlin regarded as provocative statements. “It’s unprecedented and requires special attention and special measures.”

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned both the French and British ambassadors. It urged the British ambassador “to think about the inevitable catastrophic consequences of such hostile steps from London."

Sweden’s Foreign Minister Tobias Billström said the nuclear exercises “contribute to increasing instability.”

“In the current security situation, Russia’s actions may be considered particularly irresponsible and reckless,” Billström told Swedish news agency TT.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy head of Russia’s Security Council that's chaired by Putin, said in his typically hawkish fashion that the comments by Macron and Cameron risked pushing the nuclear-armed world toward a “global catastrophe.”

It wasn’t the first time Europe’s military support for Ukraine has prompted nuclear saber-rattling. In March 2023, after the U.K.’s decision to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing shells containing depleted uranium, Putin said he intends to deploy tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of Ukraine neighbor Belarus.

The ministry said the exercise is intended to “increase the readiness of non-strategic nuclear forces to fulfill combat tasks” and will be held on Putin’s orders. The maneuvers will involve missile units of the Southern Military District along with the air force and the navy, it said.

The Russian announcement stirred little reaction in Ukraine, where the spokesman for the Military Intelligence agency, Andrii Yusov, said on national television: “Nuclear blackmail is a usual practice of Putin’s regime; it does not constitute major news.”

Western officials have blamed Russia for threatening a wider war through provocative acts. NATO countries said last week they are deeply concerned by a campaign of hybrid activities on the military alliance’s soil, accusing Moscow of being behind them and saying they represent a security threat.

Peskov dismissed those claims as “new, unfounded accusations leveled at our country.”

Germany said Monday it recalled its ambassador to Russia for a week of consultations in Berlin following an alleged computer hack of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian drones hit two vehicles Monday in Russia’s Belgorod region, killing six people and injuring 35 others, including two children, local authorities said. The area has been hit by Kyiv’s forces in recent months.

One of the vehicles was a minibus carrying farm workers, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

It was not possible to independently confirm the report.

While Ukraine’s army is largely pinned down on the 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line due to a shortage of troops and ammunition after more than two years of fighting, it has used its long-range firepower to hit targets deep inside Russia.

In what has largely been a war of attrition, Russia also has relied heavily on long-range missile, artillery and drones to wreak damage on Ukraine.

The Kremlin's forces kept up their bombardment of Ukraine's power grid, with a nighttime Russian drone attack targeting energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy. Multiple towns and villages in the region, including Sumy, lost power, regional authorities said.

Russia attacked Ukrainian targets with 13 Shahed drones overnight, 12 of which were intercepted in the Sumy region, Ukraine’s air force said.

Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Paramedic evacuation crew driver codename Kum smokes a cigarette with comrades as they wait for injured soldiers in an medical point in the area of Avdiivka close to Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Paramedic evacuation crew member codename Livsi waits for injured soldiers in an medical point in the area of Avdiivka close to Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Paramedic evacuation crew driver codename Kum, left, talks on a walkie talkie next to comrade codename Livsi as they wait for injured soldiers in an medical point in the area of Avdiivka close to Donetsk, Ukraine, Saturday, May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

FILE - In this photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2022, The Russian army's Iskander missile launchers take positions during drills in Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the military will hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons – the first time such exercise was publicly announced by Moscow. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

FILE - This photo taken from video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Feb. 19, 2022, shows a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile being launched from an air field during military drills in Russia. The Russian Defense Ministry said that the military will hold drills involving tactical nuclear weapons – the first time such exercise was publicly announced by Moscow. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)

FILE - Then European Union Election Observation Mission to Myanmar chief Alexander Graf Lambsdorff speaks during a press briefing in Yangon, Myanmar, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2015. The German foreign office says that Germany has called back its ambassador to Russia for a week of consultations, following an alleged hacker attack on Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party. The ministry said Monday, May 6, 2024 that the government is taking the incident “serious.” (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe, File)

Russian military planes fly over Red Square leaving trails of smoke in colors of the national flag during the Victory Day military parade dress rehearsal at the Red Square in Moscow, Russia, Sunday, May 5, 2024. The parade will take place at Moscow's Red Square on May 9 to celebrate 79 years of the victory in WWII. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile system launchers and APCs roll during a rehearsal for the Victory Day military parade at Dvortsovaya (Palace) Square in St. Petersburg, Russia, Sunday, May 5, 2024. The parade will take place at St. Petersburg's Palace Square on May 9 to celebrate 79 years since the victory in WWII. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)

FILE - Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses members of the Defense Ministry, the National Guard, the Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Federal Guard Service at the Kremlin, in Moscow on June 27, 2023. Putin will begins his fifth term as Russian president in an opulent Kremlin inauguration on Tuesday after destroying his political opposition, launching a devastating war in Ukraine and consolidating power. (Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP, File)

FILE - In this photo released by the Russian Defense Ministry on March 19, 2024, a Russian tank fires at Ukrainian troops from a position near the border with Ukraine in Russia’s Belgorod region. (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP, File)