Harvey Weinstein's motion to get his sex crime conviction in New York thrown out because anger and apprehensions flared among jurors during deliberations last spring was denied on Thursday.

The judge also set Weinstein's retrial on a third-degree rape charge to begin March 3, after last year's jury reached a partial verdict and a mistrial was declared because the jury foreperson said another juror threatened him and he did not feel safe.

"I never assaulted anyone"

A pale Weinstein entered the courtroom in a wheelchair clutching a book, and wearing dirty sneakers. He told the judge he was unfaithful during his marriage, but added, "I never assaulted anyone."

Weinstein is considering pleading guilty to avoid trial, but his defense attorney, Arthur Aidala, said Weinstein maintains his innocence.

"If I was making a wager, I would say that trial is going to go forward," Aidala said.

In court, Aidala lashed out at re-trying the 73-year-old for a third time, calling it a waste of time and resources, and also cited Weinstein's health problems, his 16-year sentence in California for rape and sex assault and pending sentencing for his June conviction.

"If his name wasn't Harvey Weinstein this case would be resolved," Aidala said.

Prosecutors shot back, saying a survivor was willing to testify again and that they weren't proceeding because of Weinstein's name but "because that's what justice is."

Weinstein sought to have conviction tossed 

The jury last year found Weinstein guilty of criminal sexual assault against Miriam Haley and not guilty of criminal sexual assault regarding accuser Kaja Sokola. The judge ruled a mistrial when the jury said it could not reach a verdict on the charge related to Jessica Mann, who alleges Weinstein raped her in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013.

The judge decided to let the verdict stand without any further action, but could have set aside the conviction or ordered a hearing. Weinstein's attorneys may appeal the decision. 

Prosecutors said they would try Weinstein once again on the rape charge in the latest convoluted turn in the former Hollywood mogul's path through the criminal justice system. His landmark #MeToo-era case has spanned seven years and trials in two states, including a reversal and the retrial that came to a messy end.

Weinstein denies all of the charges. They were one outgrowth of a stack of sexual harassment and sex assault allegations against him that emerged publicly in 2017 and ensuing years, fueling the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct. Early on, Weinstein apologized for "the way I've behaved with colleagues in the past," while also denying that he ever had non-consensual sex.

He is also appealing a rape conviction in Los Angeles.   

Jurors briefed judge on tensions behind-the-scenes

At the New York trial, Weinstein's lawyers argued that the women willingly accepted his advances in hopes of getting work in various capacities in show business, then falsely accused him to net settlement funds and attention.

Multiple jurors later took the unusual step of asking to brief the judge on their behind-the-scenes tensions.

In a series of exchanges partly in open court, one juror complained that others were "shunning" one of the panel members; the foreperson alluded to jurors "pushing people" verbally and talking about Weinstein's "past" in a way the juror thought improper; yet a third juror opined that discussions were "going well." The foreperson later came forward again to complain to the judge about being pressured to change his mind, then said he feared for his safety because a fellow panelist had said he would "see me outside." The foreperson eventually refused to continue deliberating.

In court, Judge Curtis Farber cited the secrecy of ongoing deliberations and reminded jurors not to disclose "the content or tenor" of them.

Weinstein's lawyers say at least 1 juror felt threatened

Since the trial, Weinstein's lawyers have talked with the first juror who openly complained and with another who didn't. In sworn statements, the two said they didn't believe Weinstein was guilty, but had given in because of other jurors' verbal aggression.

One said that after a fellow juror insulted her intelligence and suggested the judge should remove her, she was so afraid that she called two relatives that night and "told them to come look for me if they didn't hear from me, since something was not right about this jury deliberation process." All jurors' identities were redacted in court filings.

Weinstein's lawyers contend the tensions amounted to threats that poisoned the process, and that the judge didn't look into them enough before denying the defense's repeated requests for a mistrial. Weinstein's attorneys are asking him to discard the conviction or, at least, conduct a hearing about the jury strains.

Prosecutors maintain Weinstein is guilty

Prosecutors maintain that the judge was presented with claims about "scattered instances of contentious interactions" and handled them appropriately. Jurors' later sworn statements are belied, prosecutors say, by other comments from one of the same jury members. He told the media right after the trial that there "was just high tension" in the group.

Prosecutors also said the foreperson's concerns about discussions of Weinstein's past were vague and the topic wasn't entirely off-limits. Testimony covered, for example, 2017 media reports about decades of sexual harassment allegations against him.