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On Tuesday, a New York judge approved the extradition of the disgraced film mogul Harvey Weinstein to California, where he faced additional charges of sexual assault. The decision ended the prolonged legal battle due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the defense’s concerns about Weinstein’s poor health, and the paperwork dispute.
Judge Kenneth Keys stated that there was no reason to postpone Weinstein’s transfer and rejected his lawyer’s request to detain him in a state prison near Buffalo, New York. He was sentenced to prison for rape last year. 23 years-until the beginning of jury selection in the Los Angeles case.
Prosecutors said at an extradition hearing in Buffalo on Tuesday that the Los Angeles authorities plan to collect 69-year-old Weinstein from the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, in late June or early July. This will give Weinstein’s lawyer time to appeal Case’s decision.
Weinstein needs medical care, the lawyer argues
Weinstein’s lawyer, Norman Effman, argued that he should stay in the highest security setting like the Wende Hospital and receive treatment for diseases including vision loss instead of being transported across the country. Los Angeles prison cell.
He suggested that Weinstein instead use video communication and was rejected.
“What we are trying to do is not to avoid trials, but to avoid unnecessary staying in jail instead of jail,” Efman said, claiming that pretrial detention in California would deprive Weinstein of the medical services needed.
Erie County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Curtin Gable (Colleen Curtin Gable) supported the extradition of Weinstein, retorting: “This is Los Angeles. This is not a remote outpost without any medical services.”
Weinstein appeals the judgment in the New York case
Weinstein faces 11 allegations of sexual assault involving five women in California, which originated from allegations of sexual assault in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013.
The allegations include rape, forced oral sex, restraint assault and the use of force for sexual penetration.
Watch | Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years in prison:
A New York judge sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 23 years in prison. Last month, a jury convicted the 67-year-old Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape of former actress Jessica Mann and former production assistant Miriam Haley (Miriam Haley). There is a first-degree criminal sex crime. 5:11
The Los Angeles prosecutor first charged Weinstein in January 2020, just as the jury selection process for the New York City case was underway, and the case ended with his conviction and imprisonment.
In 2013, Weinstein raped an aspiring actress in a Manhattan hotel room, and in 2006 forced oral sex with a television and film production assistant in his Manhattan apartment. Weinstein is appealing.
Since Weinstein was detained in New York, he needed authorization from Case to hand him over to the Los Angeles authorities under the terms of the interstate extradition agreement.
Another way that Weinstein’s actions may be prevented is the opposition of the Governor of New York, but Gable said that Governor Andrew Cuomo did not take such actions.
After Case announced his decision, Weinstein appeared in Wende prison via video, burying his masked face in his hands. Earlier in the hearing, Weinstein was sitting in a conference room that looked like a prison with a white mask under his right earlobe.
In addition to concerns about Weinstein’s health, Efman also questioned the legality of the extradition documents submitted by the Los Angeles authorities, which he said were flawed because it only listed some of the allegations.
“We are challenging the paperwork because it is incorrect. It is wrong,” Efman told Case. “They just copied the form and changed the date.”
Gable said the document “fully complies with the requirements of the extradition agreement.”
District Attorney Questions Health Claim
Gable also questioned Efman’s claims about Weinstein’s health.
Efman told the judge that Weinstein refused to accept prescription treatment for his eye disease last week because he said he was “not psychologically prepared.” He said prison officials cycled through the ophthalmologists to find something “acceptable to the defendant.”
According to Weinstein’s lawyers, he has numerous health problems, and his condition has deteriorated since he went to prison. Two weeks after the sentence was pronounced in March 2020, he contracted COVID-19.
Weinstein suffers from diabetes, extensive coronary artery disease, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic low back pain, severe sciatica with neuropathy, chronic leg pain and arthritis, which seriously affect walking ability, anemia, high blood pressure, and high blood pressure. Lipemia and eye diseases that severely affect vision, his lawyer said.
“Every prisoner has the absolute right to receive proper treatment while in custody,” Gable said. “But they have no say in when and where to receive treatment, and neither doctor’s report says that this kind of treatment cannot be done in Los Angeles.”
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