Harvey Weinstein Pushes For Earlier Trial: “I Need to Get Out of This Hell Hole”
An April 15 trial date has been set for Harvey Weinstein.
However, Weinstein pleaded in court for Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Curtis J. Farber to move the trial date sooner, citing his health conditions and saying, “I won’t be there for April.”
“I’m asking and begging your honor to move your trial,” Weinstein said. “I can’t hold on anymore. I’m holding on because I want justice for myself.”
Seated in a wheelchair, Weinstein made a rare address to the court and raised his voice to plead with Farber to switch his trial date with an earlier trial that’s already on the calendar. He called the conditions at Rikers Island where he’s being held a “medieval situation” and said he believes he’s headed back to Bellevue Hospital “any day now.”
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“I’m in a serious emergency situation, I’m begging for you to move your date,” Weinstein said. “I need to get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible.”
“There are so many people suffering at Rikers island. So many of the people I am with in prison are going through similar problems. They don’t have the same mouthpiece I have,” Weinstein continued. “It remains a stain on this city.”
Amid the hearings, Weinstein’s attorneys have repeatedly pointed to their client’s poor health and lack of proper care at Riker’s Island. Weinstein has been diagnosed with leukemia, in addition to other ailments, and has been hospitalized multiple times in the past several months.
Weinstein went back and forth with Farber on negotiating the trial date, trying to push it even to April 7. Farber said he already had the other trial ready to go, but would see how that trial progressed.
Farber also denied Weinstein’s attorney’s motion to dismiss the new indictment against him.
The indictment contained one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree for forcibly performing oral sex on a complaining witness in 2006.
Weinstein’s attorneys had alleged that prosecutors unconstitutionally delayed charging Weinstein on the latest indictment and that there was not sufficient evidence to support the charge, among other matters.
Weinstein was arraigned in September on the count of a criminal sexual act in the first degree, which stemmed from a recent indictment returned by a grand jury. He pleaded not guilty to the charge, which carries a sentence of up to 25 years in prison.
Weinstein also faces a retrial on charges related to his 2020 rape conviction in New York, which was overturned in April. In total, Weinstein has been charged under two indictments for three sex crimes.
In October, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Curtis J. Farber granted the defense’s motion to consolidate the new indictment against Weinstein with the prior charge so that he would face one trial on all three charges.
