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Harvey Weinstein Secretly Indicted on 11 Counts of Rape & Sexual Battery by an LA Jury; Extradition Expected

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Edited by: TJVNews.com

Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, who is currently serving a 23-year sentence in New York for rape and sexual assault, was secretly indicted on 11 counts of rape and sexual battery in Los Angeles a few weeks ago, according to a Fox News report.

The report indicated that the move for indictment by LA District Attorney George Gascon will make the extradition of the Miramax CEO easier from New York so that he can be tried.

Weinstein is currently serving time at a maximum security prison near Buffalo, New York known as the Wende Correctional Facility. On Monday afternoon at his extradition hearing in Erie County, New York, the indictment is expected to be publicly revealed. Currently, it is still under seal, according to the Fox News report as is his arrest warrant.

In January of 2020, former DA Jackie Lacey filed a criminal complaint against Weinstein and according to the Fox News report, the current indictment is pretty much identical to the complaint. The 11-count indictment involves five incidents that allegedly took place between 2004 and 2013, according to the Fox News report. The report also stated that if convicted, Weinstein could face up to 140 years in prison.

Until this juncture, the case in Los Angeles against Weinstein had not proceeded due to the Covid-19 pandemic, however, the Fox News report indicated that the DA’s office wants to forge ahead with the indictment and future trial.

The New York Post reported that movie mogul was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in February 2020 of the 2013 rape of hairstylist Jessica Mann as well as forcibly performing oral sex in 2006 on Miriam “Mimi” Hayeli, a former “Project Runway” TV staffer.  Earlier this month, Weinstein appealed the conviction, saying that he was “deprived of a fair trial.”

Lawyers for the movie producer are expected to ask for another delay of the extradition on Monday, citing his “poor” health conditions, according to the report.

Fox News reported that the chances of a postponement are slim as their next shot would be with Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is currently battling sexual harassment allegations.

Legal experts have speculated that by getting an indictment, LA prosecutors can streamline the proceedings and will be able to go straight to trial, rather than doing it under a criminal complaint that would then require a preliminary hearing, according to the Fox News report.

“This process will eliminate the need for a preliminary hearing which is kind of a minitrial like we saw in the OJ case: there was the trial before the trial,” criminal defense attorney Troy Slaten explained, according to the Fox News report. He added that in LA County, the use of grand jury is limited to very few cases. With this move and under the law that allows the borrowed custody,  California can get custody of New York’s inmate and must the trial must commence within 120 days, as was reported by Fox News.

Famed attorney Gloria Allred is representing two of the five accusers in the Los Angeles case, according to the Fox News report.  Allred told Fox News that, “It appears to me that Mr. Weinstein does not wish to be removed to Los Angeles to face charges, but justice delayed is justice denied.”

As a long-time women’s rights advocate and attorney, Allred represents Mimi Haleyi, one of the women whose sex assault accusations Weinstein was found guilty of in New York, according to the Fox News report. In the LA case, Allred is defending one unnamed woman and Lauren Young, who has come forward publicly as she was a witness in the New York criminal trial over a year ago, as was reported by Fox News, Young, a model and actress, testified then that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel in February 2013 after being trapped inside a bathroom with him. He allegedly groped her while masturbating before she was able to flee, according to the Fox News report.

The report also indicated that LA prosecutors allege that Weinstein raped an Italian model at another Beverly Hills hotel on Feb. 18, 2013, just a day before the attack against Young. The alleged assaults of the other three women all took place at Beverly Hills hotels.

 

 

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