Photo Credit: David Shankbone
Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein is currently sitting behind bars in New York serving out a 23 year sentence for a rape conviction he received last year. He was spending his time there until a jury was selected for him in LA. The LA authorities are planning to bring him from the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York, at the end of June or in July to LA as stated in today’s extradition hearing.
Judge Kenneth Case said there is no reason to delay Weinstein’s move to LA but there’s still time for Weinstein to appeal if he chooses. His attorney, Norman Effman said he needs to remain in NY due to the healthcare he’s receiving. At this point, Weinstein is said to be echnically blind, has major dental issues and is suffering from cardiac issues, diabetes, back pain and sleep apnea. Erie County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Curtin Gable argued “It’s Los Angeles. It’s not some remote outpost that doesn’t have any sort of medical care.”
To Weinstein’s point, prison healthcare is typically poor in general and while this does sound like a cop out, if he’s able to prove that the healthcare he’s receiving won’t be available where he’s headed, they may have a case. “What we were trying to do is not avoid the trial, but avoid an unnecessary stay in a jail rather than a prison,” his attorney stated claiming that pre-trial jail detention would cause him to receive lesser healthcare options.
Depending on how his LA trial goes either in person or the virtual hearing which his request for has already been denied, he’s facing 11 sexual assault cases when he gets there for events ranging from 2004 to 2013 involving 5 different women.
Weinstein’s attorney also said they’re challenging the extradition “because it’s not right. It’s wrong… They just copied the form and changed the date,” he told the judge. Erie County Assistant District Attorney Gable pointed out what he’s portrayed as a stalling and difficult Weinstein who rejected a prescribed eye treatement because he “wasn’t psychologically ready for it” and that prison officials cycled through ophthalmologists trying to find one “acceptable to the defendant.”
“Every inmate has an absolute right to appropriate treatment when he or she is in custody,” Gable said. “But they don’t have a say in when and where they get their treatment, and there’s absolutely nothing in either doctor’s report that says this treatment can’t be done in Los Angeles.”
Well, this looks like it’s going to be an interesting battle Weinstein’s team is putting up.
