NEW YORK _ Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he raped one woman and forced another to perform oral sex on him.
Weinstein's brief arraignment in Manhattan Supreme Court came six days after a grand jury voted to indict him on two counts of rape and one count of criminal sexual act.
"We begin our fight now," Weinstein's lawyer Benjamin Brafman said outside the courthouse after the hearing.
Calling the case "imminently defensible," Brafman said his team will work to convince prosecutors to drop the charges.
"Rape is a reprehensible crime. It is equally reprehensible to be falsely accused of rape," Brafman added. "In his view, he has been falsely accused of rape."
Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Weinstein ignored reporters' questions as he walked into the courthouse with a heavy limp. But his face lit up when asked how he was holding up.
The 66-year-old accused rapist appeared pale and gaunt as he took a seat at the defense table.
"Not guilty," he declared when asked to make a plea.
Weinstein faces up to 25 years in prison on each count if he is convicted.
The criminal sexual act charge relates to a 2004 encounter between Weinstein and an aspiring actress named Lucia Evans.
Evans told investigators that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him after he invited her to his Miramax office in Tribeca for what she thought would be a casting meeting.
The victim in the rape case has not been identified. Prosecutors say the woman was assaulted at a Doubletree Hotel on Lexington Avenue on March 8, 2013.
Brafman has claimed the encounters were consensual.
"Mr. Weinstein did not invent the casting couch," Brafman said.
The arraignment marked the latest low for Weinstein, whose career was torpedoed last year when dozens of women came forward in bombshell exposes accusing him of rape and sexual misconduct.
Weinstein, who surrendered to police May 25 on rape and sex assault charges, turned down the chance to testify before the grand jury panel. He was released after posting $1 million bail.
Brafman said last week that his client did not appear before the grand jury because he didn't have enough time to prepare his testimony.
"We asked the district attorney for more time so that Mr. Weinstein's attorneys could gather the material needed to properly prepare him for his grand jury testimony but that request was denied," Brafman said Wednesday.
Adding to Weinstein's myriad legal woes, three women filed a class-action lawsuit last week claiming that the accused rapist also sexually assaulted them.
One of the women, tech executive Melissa Thompson, said she was deceived into contacting Brafman's firm after being told that he would be representing Weinstein victims. In reality, Brafman was working for the producer and trying to glean information, the lawsuit said.
Brafman maintains that Alex Spiro, a former law partner, acted alone and no longer worked at the firm when he made contact with Thompson.
"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 in court Tuesday.
The indictment gives Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. a second shot at prosecuting Weinstein after coming under fire for refusing to bring charges against the wealthy producer related to allegations that he groped an Italian model in 2015.
