Harvey Weinstein back in New York court as California requests extradition over rape conviction
Harvey Weinstein was back in a New York City courtroom on Thursday as authorities consider California’s extradition request for him to serve his pending sentence for a rape conviction in Los Angeles.
The hearing, held in Queens criminal court on Thursday morning, was in relation to California’s request, according to both prosecutors and defense attorneys.
Having just left a city hospital days before, Mr Weinstein, 72, showed up for the hearing in a wheelchair, wearing a dark suit.
The disgraced movie mogul will remain behind bars in New York as a court works out whether he should stay in the state awaiting a retrial in a rape case, or if he should be sent back to California to continue serving another prison sentence.
Mr Weinstein denied his consent for an extradition request from California during the brief court hearing, with his attorney saying that California first needs to produce a warrant.
“They are not in a position to extradite Mr Weinstein because they have not done what they need to do,” attorney Diana Fabi Samson said outside court, according to the Associated Press.
He is due to appear back in court on 7 August.
The 16-year sentence that Mr Weinstein received in 2023 for raping a woman at a 2013 Los Angeles film festival had been on hold while he served time in New York after being found guilty of rape in Manhattan in 2020.
However, late last month, the disgraced producer’s 2020 rape conviction was overturned after the New York Court of Appeals found that a judge had made a series of questionable decisions during the trial.
Weinstein was found guilty in 2020 of raping and assaulting two women and was 23 years at a prison in upstate New York.
Nevertheless, Mr Weinstein was returned to New York from the upstate prison while Manhattan’s district attorney is working to retry him.
“We will do everything in our power to retry this case, and remain steadfast in our commitment to survivors of sexual assault,” a spokesperson for Mr Bragg’s office told The Independent late April.
Prosecutors claimed in a hearing last week that they could be ready as soon as September and that at least one of two alleged victims was willing to testify again.
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