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Harvey Weinstein jailed in LA, could be in court Wednesday

By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH | City News Service

LOS ANGELES — Disgraced former film producer Harvey Weinstein could appear in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday to be arraigned on sex-related charges involving five women.

Weinstein, 69, was extradited from New York to Los Angeles on Tuesday. He was subsequently booked and was being held without bail, according to jail records.

Earlier Tuesday, the New York Department of Corrections said custody of Weinstein “was handed over to the appropriate officials for transport to the state of California per a court order.”

Weinstein was serving a 23-year prison term in New York after being convicted in that state of a criminal sex act against a former production assistant and raping an aspiring actress.

His attorneys had tried to block his transfer from New York to Los Angeles until he was “medically fit” to be moved. A court document filed in Los Angeles by the defense contended that Weinstein was in “urgent need of medical treatment to save his eyesight, and that this treatment could take anywhere from 24 to 36 months.” It also asked a judge in Los Angeles to delay the transfer until Weinstein’s medical treatment is completed.

In court papers filed earlier this month, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office asserted that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is capable of providing medical care to Weinstein.

Weinstein was initially charged in January 2020 with sex-related counts involving three women. Los Angeles County prosecutors filed additional charges against him last October, alleging he sexually assaulted two other women in Beverly Hills. The charges stem from alleged crimes between 2004 and 2013.

He could face a potential maximum of 140 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged of four counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of sexual penetration by use of force, according to the District Attorney’s Office.

Weinstein is reportedly facing a sealed indictment in Los Angeles involving those same charges that would allow prosecutors to move forward more quickly with his trial.


Source: Orange County Register

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