Entertainment
Harvey Weinstein ‘going blind in jail and has lost 4 teeth’ as lawyers appeal extradition to California to face sexual assault charges
Harvey Weinstein is reportedly going blind and has lost four teeth in jail.
The 69-year-old is serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault, and faces criminal charges in California on four counts of forcible rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint, and one count of sexual penetration by use of force, related to alleged attacks on five women between 2004 and 2013 in the Los Angeles area.
Weinstein’s lawyers are challenging the disgraced producer’s extradition to California to be arraigned after being indicted on the sexual assault charges, with one of his attorneys, Norman Effman, telling Judge Kenneth Case that they wanted the extradition delayed so that Weinstein could undergo an eye surgery and a dental procedure.
Effman said: ‘He is almost technically blind at this point and in need of surgery…and shots.
‘He’s also had some major dental issues and he has scheduled, as we speak, we don’t know again exactly when, for some dental procedures to save his teeth. He’s lost, I think, four at this point.
‘The basic human nature of this case, it seems disruptive to undo what New York State has accomplished in its ability to care for a person, in their custody, and to ensure that he is receiving appropriate medical treatment.’
Effman added: ‘We’re not trying to avoid what is going to happen in California.
‘We believe there is not only a defence to these charges, but a very good defence to these charges.’
Weinstein appeared via video before Erie County Court Judge Kenneth Case from the maximum security Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo, and did not speak during the hearing.
Judge Case said that even if he ordered extradition during today’s proceedings, Weinstein would have the right to appeal, and gave Weinstein’s legal team until April 20 to file papers detailing their opposition to extradition.
Prosecutors have a week to respond, and there will be another hearing on April 30.
The new indictment against Weinstein, which remains sealed, was returned by a grand jury on March 15, is believed to contain the same 11 counts involving the same unnamed women as the previous criminal complaint against Weinstein.
The star is currently appealing his February 2020 conviction in Manhattan and 23-year prison sentence for criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree.
Lawyers have argued that Weinstein was denied a fair trial ‘by an impartial jury’ and claim that the court he was tried in was ‘permeated with negative publicity about him and his alleged relationships with women’.
His legal team is requesting his convictions be reversed, the third degree rape charge dismissed as time-barred and a new trial ordered on a single count of first degree criminal sexual act based on the July 2006 incident.
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