‘Good luck, Mr Weinstein’: Judge’s sign-off as rapist denies 11 more sex attacks
TOUCHING DOWN FOR COURT HEARING
DISGRACED Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a further 11 charges of sexual assault yesterday.
The 69-year-old was taken into a Los Angeles court in a wheelchair after losing his bid to block being extradited from New York. The charges, relating to five women, include four counts of rape and two of sexual battery. Weinstein faces up to 140 years in prison if convicted.
His lawyer Mark Werksman entered a not guilty plea to all charges and said he planned to challenge three of the counts, citing California’s statute of limitations.
Weinstein, wearing a creased, brown prison-issue shirt and trousers, and a blue disposable face mask, spoke briefly during the fiveminute part of the hearing open to the public.
Judge Sergio Tapia told him ‘Good luck Mr Weinstein’, to which the convicted rapist replied: ‘Thank you very much.’ No bail was granted.
The new allegations involve incidents said to have happened in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2013. Weinstein had been flown to Los Angeles on Tuesday from New York, where he is serving a 23-year sentence, and spent the night in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility. He is appealing against his New York rape conviction.
Weinstein’s lawyers had fought the extradition, arguing he was in poor health.
Illness, including Covid, has left the film producer going blind, losing teeth and needing a walking frame.
He had to be helped from a private jet. He was not handcuffed as he emerged but guards had to help him stay upright as he walked down the stairs, by holding a strap tied around his chest. Weinstein was charged with the California offences in January last year.
Lauren Young, the only one of the five accusers whose identity has been made public, alleges he lured her into his room at the Montage Hotel in Beverly Hills in 2013, grabbed her breast and committed a lewd act before she fled.
She testified against him in his New York trial as a character witness.
An unnamed Italian model and actress claims Weinstein raped her in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom in 2013.