NEW YORK –
Harvey Weinstein will remain locked up in New York while a court decides whether he should remain in a city jail while awaiting a new trial or be sent to California to serve his prison sentence for rape.
The fallen movie mogul, who appeared at the hearing in a wheelchair and dressed in a dark suit, did not consent to California’s extradition request during a brief court hearing Thursday. The 72-year-old will remain behind bars at the Rikers Island jail, where he returned from a city hospital just a few days ago.
California now needs to submit an order signed by the governor within 90 days, Judge Joanne Watters said.
“They are not in a position to extradite Mr. Weinstein because they have not done what they were supposed to do,” Diana Fabi Samson, Weinstein’s attorney, said outside court after the appearance.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, which prosecuted Weinstein, referred extradition issues to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
Watters scheduled Weinstein’s next appearance on the extradition issue for Aug. 7, just weeks before New York prosecutors said they may be ready to try him again.
The 16-year sentence Weinstein received in California in 2023 for raping a woman at a Los Angeles film festival in 2013 had been frozen while he served a 23-year sentence for rape in New York.
After his Empire State conviction was overturned late last month, Manhattan prosecutors said they are working to retry him, and at least one of the two accusers was willing to testify again.
The once-powerful former film executive has denied the New York charges, which accused him of raping an aspiring actor in 2013 and sexually assaulting a film and television production assistant in 2006. The 2020 verdict was announced in that moment as a milestone in history. MeToo movement, an era that began in 2017 with an avalanche of accusations against Weinstein.
In overturning the convictions, New York’s highest court found that the trial judge prejudiced Weinstein with inappropriate rulings, including by allowing other women to testify about allegations he was not accused of.
Weinstein’s representatives said Thursday that their main concern is making sure he receives the medical care he needs while in custody in New York.
“He is behaving as well as could be expected given the circumstances of being incarcerated due to health issues,” Samson said.
Weinstein was serving his sentence in an upstate New York prison until he was transferred to city custody following the appeals court decision. He was then sent to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where his publicist says he was treated for pneumonia and other medical problems. He was transported back to Rikers on Monday.
Craig Rothfeld, a jail consultant working with Weinstein’s lawyers, emphasized that the decision on where to house Weinstein was made solely by city officials without input from his legal team.
“There have been a lot of rumors that he will have a comfortable room. There have been false narratives about what that room is like,” he said. “He has very serious health problems. Since the day he was incarcerated, he has been in a hospital, so the narrative that he shouldn’t be in Bellevue really doesn’t make sense.”