The disgraced movie mogul asked for his trial to be accelerated, calling Rikers Island a “hellhole.” He faces three sex-crime charges.
The disgraced movie mogul asked for his trial to be accelerated, calling Rikers Island a “hellhole.” He faces three sex-crime charges.
The disgraced movie mogul asked for his trial to be accelerated, calling Rikers Island a “hellhole.” He faces three sex-crime charges.
Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood mogul, will face a Manhattan trial for the second time on April 15, though he pleaded with a judge to try him sooner.
Mr. Weinstein, 72, is accused of three sex crimes. A New York judge on Wednesday ruled against a motion to dismiss his most recent indictment.
Mr. Weinstein objected to the trial date in an exchange with the judge, Curtis Farber. He said he was “begging” him to move up the date because of his declining health.
“I can’t wait this long,” Mr. Weinstein said, adding: “The sooner the better.”
Mr. Weinstein, who was brought into a Manhattan criminal courtroom with his right hand cuffed to a wheelchair, sought to negotiate with the judge, saying that he was ill and “can’t hold on anymore.” The Rikers Island jail complex where he is being held is a “hellhole” and a “stain on the city,” Mr. Weinstein told the court.
“I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over,” he said.
After listening to Mr. Weinstein’s plea, Justice Farber said he was “empathetic” but that it would be difficult to reschedule other trials to accommodate the request.
Mr. Weinstein was already set to be retried after an earlier conviction was overturned. Last year, after a grand jury indicted him on a new charge that he sexually assaulted a woman in a Manhattan hotel in 2006, the judge ruled that the cases could be tried together.