Harvey Weinstein is set to appear virtually for an extradition proceeding before an Erie County Court judge in New York Monday afternoon for his LA rape charges. The hearing is set for 2 p.m. ET.
The extradition hearing comes after the producer was secretly indicted by a Los Angeles grand jury in an effort to expedite the process, according to a new report from Fox News. A representative for the Los Angeles District Attorney did not immediately return a request for comment.
The hearing has been delayed because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. Weinstein was originally expected to appear virtually for a hearing in Erie County — where he has been incarcerated since the onset of the pandemic — online in August before Judge Kenneth Case, but the proceeding was adjourned and moved to Dec. 11 based on an agreement between the L.A. District Attorney’s Office and Weinstein’s attorney. That hearing was then adjourned again and delayed to this month.
According to Fox News, the indictment is still under seal but is “virtually identical to the criminal complaint, which had been filed in January 2020 by former DA Jackie Lacey. ”
The L.A. District Attorney’s Office requested temporary custody of Weinstein in July 2020 to begin criminal proceedings. In that case, Weinstein faces charges of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force, sexual battery by restraint and sexual battery, based on the accounts of three women, for incidents occurring in 2010 and 2013.
Weinstein, who has denied accusations of non-consensual sex, faces up to 140 years in prison in the L.A. case. He is currently serving out a 23-year prison sentence after being convicted of rape and a criminal sexual act in New York in early 2020.
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