OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
3:58 PM – Monday, August 19, 2024
Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein made a brief court appearance on Monday in relation to California’s request to extradite him, but prosecutors reaffirmed that he will remain in custody in New York while awaiting a retrial on rape and sexual assault allegations in Manhattan.
However, following the resolution of the New York case, he will go back to California to fulfill his 16-year sentence for a previous rape conviction there, according to a statement from Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz.
“Today, defendant Harvey Weinstein was formally arraigned on a governor’s warrant issued by Governor Kathy Hochul, who exercised her authority for him to remain in New York State until his case in New York County is adjudicated,” Katz stated. “He will serve the California sentence first, as it is now his primary sentence.”
Weinstein was found guilty in Los Angeles in 2022 while serving a 23-year sentence in New York. Weinstein has still denied ever raping or sexually assaulting anyone. Additionally, the state’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction in Manhattan last April, claiming that the trial judge had unjustly permitted testimony against Weinstein based on unrelated charges.
“The retrial in Manhattan is tentatively scheduled for November,” according to AP News.
In less than five minutes on Monday, the 72-year-old Weinstein appeared in Queens criminal court with his lawyers agreeing that he will stay at the neighboring Rikers Island jail complex.
Weinstein was admitted to the hospital last month for a variety of health issues, including COVID-19 and bilateral lung pneumonia.
A Queens court has been handling the extradition case instead of Manhattan court due to Queens’ close proximity to Rikers Island.
Manhattan prosecutors stated last month that they planned to file fresh charges of sexual assault against Weinstein, but they haven’t provided any further information or an expected date for doing so.
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