What to KnowHarvey Weinstein begged a decide Wednesday to carry his #MeToo retrial as quickly as doable, telling him “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on” with most cancers, coronary heart points and harsh situations at New York Metropolis’s Rikers Island jail complicated.The disgraced film mogul objected after Choose Curtis Farber mentioned the retrial would begin April 15, imploring him to swap with one other, unrelated trial the decide has in March.Weinstein, 72, is being handled for quite a few well being situations, together with continual myeloid leukemia, coronary heart points and diabetes. He complained to Farber that jail officers gave him the fallacious tablets Wednesday morning and failed to select him up for courtroom in a well timed trend.
Harvey Weinstein begged a decide Wednesday to carry his #MeToo retrial as quickly as doable, telling him “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on” with most cancers, coronary heart points and harsh situations at New York Metropolis’s Rikers Island jail complicated.
The disgraced film mogul objected after Choose Curtis Farber mentioned the retrial would begin April 15, imploring him to swap with one other, unrelated trial the decide has in March.
“Everyday I’m at Rikers Island, it’s a mystery to me how I’m still walking,” Weinstein mentioned at a listening to in state courtroom in Manhattan.
“I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with,” he mentioned.
Weinstein, 72, is being handled for quite a few well being situations, together with continual myeloid leukemia, coronary heart points and diabetes. He complained to Farber that jail officers gave him the fallacious tablets Wednesday morning and failed to select him up for courtroom in a well timed trend.
“So many people suffering on Rikers Island,” he mentioned.
Weinstein arrived in courtroom in a wheelchair greater than a half-hour after the listening to’s scheduled begin time. At occasions as he addressed Farber, he sounded extra just like the imperious studio boss he as soon as was.
“I’m asking and begging you, your honor, to move your trial,” Weinstein mentioned, suggesting that even every week’s head begin could be useful.
Weinstein mentioned that at occasions he finds himself gasping for air and predicted that he would quickly be in a hospital once more for remedy.
He quizzed the decide about his trial calendar, together with jury choice in one other matter that’s set to start Monday. Farber mentioned he arrived on the April 15 date after consulting with prosecutors and Weinstein’s attorneys however would look into presumably beginning the trial a couple of days earlier, if time permits.
“I’m in a serious emergency situation. I am begging the court to move your date,” Weinstein mentioned, telling the decide he wished to “get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible.”
Weinstein’s entreaty, a rarity for a legal defendant, got here after Farber issued a key ruling defining the scope of his retrial. The decide upheld a cost based mostly on an allegation from a lady who wasn’t within the unique case.
Weinstein had wished the additional cost thrown out, arguing by way of his attorneys that the Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace solely introduced it to bolster their case with a 3rd accuser after New York’s highest courtroom overturned his 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault fees involving two girls.
Scheduling the retrial was difficult by an more and more crowded courtroom calendar.
Weinstein’s lawyer, Arthur Aidala, is representing conservative strategist Steve Bannon in a border wall fraud trial set to begin March 4 earlier than a distinct Manhattan decide.
In the meantime, Farber has a homicide trial in March.
Earlier than Bannon’s trial date was set final week, Aidala had instructed that Weinstein’s trial go first in “the interest of humanity,” citing the ex-studio boss’ declining well being.
“They know that Mr. Weinstein is dying of cancer and is an innocent man right now in the state of New York,” Aidala argued in courtroom final week. He pleaded to prosecutors: “Can I try this dying man’s case first?”
Weinstein is being retried on fees that he forcibly carried out oral intercourse on a film and TV manufacturing assistant in 2006 and raped an aspiring actor in 2013. The extra cost, filed final September, alleges he compelled oral intercourse on a distinct lady at a Manhattan resort in 2006.
The Manhattan district legal professional’s workplace mentioned in courtroom papers that the girl, who has not been recognized publicly, got here ahead to prosecutors simply days earlier than the beginning of Weinstein’s first trial however was not a part of that case.
Prosecutors mentioned they didn’t pursue the ladies’s allegations after Weinstein was convicted and sentenced to 23 years in jail, however they revisited them and secured a brand new indictment after the state’s Court docket of Appeals threw out his conviction final April.
Farber dominated in October to mix the brand new indictment and current fees into one trial.
Weinstein’s attorneys contend that prosecutors prejudiced him by ready practically 5 years to convey the extra cost, suggesting they’d elected to not embody the allegation in his first trial so they might use it later if his conviction had been reversed.
Prosecutors referred to as that pondering “absurd,” countering that Weinstein’s attorneys would have additionally been outraged if he had been charged based mostly on the third lady’s allegation both throughout his first trial or instantly after his conviction.
Weinstein “would likely have characterized that timing as a vindictive and gratuitous pile-on,” prosecutors wrote in a courtroom submitting final month.
Manhattan District Legal professional Alvin Bragg’s workplace mentioned the beforehand uncharged allegation “required a sensitive investigation” and critical contemplation earlier than searching for an indictment, partly as a result of there aren’t any eyewitnesses to the alleged assault and no scientific or different bodily proof.
Weinstein co-founded the movie and tv manufacturing firms Miramax and The Weinstein Firm and was as soon as one of the crucial highly effective individuals in Hollywood, having produced movies similar to “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”
In 2017, he grew to become probably the most distinguished villain of the #MeToo motion, which erupted when girls started going public with accounts of his habits.
He has lengthy maintained that any sexual exercise was consensual.
In vacating Weinstein’s conviction, the Court docket of Appeals dominated that the trial decide, James M. Burke, unfairly allowed testimony in opposition to him based mostly on allegations from different girls that weren’t a part of the case. Burke is not on the bench.
Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022 of one other rape. His 16-year jail sentence in that case nonetheless stands, however his attorneys appealed in June, arguing he didn’t get a good trial.
Weinstein has remained in custody in New York’s Rikers Island jail complicated, with occasional journeys to a hospital for medical remedy, whereas awaiting the retrial.
The Related Press doesn’t usually establish individuals alleging sexual assault until they consent to be named.
