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Harvey Weinstein appeared in a Queens courtroom Thursday morning as prosecutors fought an extradition request to ship him again to California following the gorgeous overturning of his New York rape and intercourse assault conviction.
California authorities have requested that New York City legislation enforcement officers deliver the disgraced media mogul, 72, again to the West Coast, the place he’s going through extra intercourse abuse fees.
“With the New York case towards Weinstein overturned, he’s technically now a fugitive from the state of California,” a legislation enforcement supply mentioned.
New York is combating the extradition request for the reason that disgraced Miramax founder is anticipated to be retried on the rape case as quickly as the autumn.
Weinstein was wheeled into the courtroom greater than an hour after he was scheduled to seem. Wearing a swimsuit and tie, he crouched in a wheelchair. His pores and skin appeared pale as he gazed furtively across the courtroom.
Weinstein himself refused to be extradited, attorneys mentioned, and he didn’t communicate past answering sure and no questions.
As he left the courtroom, he locked eyes with Craig Rothfeld, one in every of his attorneys, seated within the entrance row, and waved a hand within the air as if gesturing for one thing.
“You’ll have it tomorrow,” Rothfeld advised him. “It was a combination up. You’ll have it tomorrow.”
A governor’s warrant have to be looked for Weinstein’s launch to California. He was ordered held with out bail on the premise of the fugitive warrant and is scheduled to seem in courtroom once more Aug. 7.
“They will not be able to extradite Weinstein proper now as a result of they haven’t performed what they wanted to do,” Diana Fabi Samson, one in every of Weinstein’s attorneys, mentioned outdoors courtroom.
Fabi Samson mentioned she additionally needed to make clear among the authorized language.
“He’s not a fugitive within the colloquial sense of the phrase — that’s simply the language they use,” she mentioned. “Our fundamental concern is that Mr. Weinstein is right here in New York in order that we are able to put together for the trial.”
“There’s been false narratives about what that room is like,” Rothfeld mentioned, referencing how and the place Weinstein has been housed since his arrest given his “critical well being points.”
“Since the day he was incarcerated he has been in a hospital-like setting,” Rothfeld mentioned.
Fabi Samson spoke to Weinstein’s well being briefly as effectively.
“He is holding up in addition to he may be underneath the circumstances of being incarcerated and having the well being points,” she mentioned.
The determination to retry Weinstein was introduced earlier this month at a Manhattan Supreme Court listening to attended by the film producer and Jessica Mann, one in every of two girls who he was discovered responsible of attacking greater than 4 years in the past.
A state Supreme Court jury decided Weinstein was responsible of felony sexual act within the first-degree and third-degree rape in 2020, discovering he forcibly carried out oral intercourse on Miriam Haley in 2006 and dedicated third-degree rape in an incident with Mann in 2013.
He was sentenced to 23 years in jail, which he was serving on the Mohawk Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y. — the place he returned after going through one other trial in California that resulted in his December 2022 conviction on rape and sexual assault fees and a 16-year sentence.
The gorgeous April 25 ruling by the New York Court of Appeals overturning Weinstein’s New York conviction discovered the trial courtroom judge, James Burke, shouldn’t have permitted testimony by three girls — Taralê Wulff, Dawn Dunning, and Lauren Young — about uncharged allegations of sexual violence.
The extradition listening to might have taken place wherever in New York City, a supply mentioned. While Weinstein was convicted in Manhattan, a Queens courtroom was chosen due to its proximity to Rikers Island, the place Weinstein is at present incarcerated as he awaits his new trial, the supply mentioned.
