Judge approves Weinstein’s extradition for California rape case

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“What we were trying to do was not avoid trial, but avoid an unnecessary stay in a jail rather than a jail,” Effman said, claiming that remand in California would deprive Weinstein of medical care. required.

Erie County Assistant District Attorney Colleen Curtin Gable, arguing for Weinstein’s extradition, retorted, “This is Los Angeles. It’s not some remote outpost that doesn’t have any sort of medical care.”

Weinstein faces 11 counts of sexual assault in California involving five women, stemming from alleged assaults in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills from 2004 to 2013. Charges include rape, forced oral copulation, sexual assault by coercion and sexual penetration by the use of force.

Los Angeles prosecutors first charged Weinstein in January 2020, just as jury selection began in the New York case that ended in his conviction and jailing.

Weinstein is appealing the verdict that he raped an aspiring actress in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel room and performed forcible oral sex on television and as a film production assistant in 2006 in his Manhattan apartment.

Because Weinstein is incarcerated in New York, Case’s permission was needed to transfer him to the custody of Los Angeles authorities under an interstate extradition agreement.

Another way Weinstein’s decision could have been blocked was an objection from the Governor of New York, but Gable said there was no such action from Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Weinstein, appearing via video from Wende prison, placed his hands over his mask-covered face after Case announced his decision. Earlier in the hearing, Weinstein had the mask falling off his right ear as he sat in what appeared to be a prison meeting room.

In addition to concerns about Weinstein’s health, Effman questioned the legitimacy of extradition documents filed by Los Angeles authorities, which he said were flawed because they only mentioned some of the charges.

“We’re disputing the paperwork because it’s not correct. It’s wrong… They just copied the form and changed the date,” Effman told Case.

Gable said the documents “absolutely meet the requirements” of the extradition agreement.

Gable also disputed Effman’s claims about Weinstein’s health, telling the judge that Weinstein had turned down prescribed treatment for his eye problem last week because he said he “wasn’t psychologically ready for it. and that prison officials had scoured eye doctors to try to find one “acceptable to the defendant.”

Weinstein has a myriad of health issues and his condition has worsened since being in prison, his attorneys say, including a bout with COVID-19 two weeks after his March 2020 sentencing.

Weinstein suffers from diabetes, extensive coronary artery disease, anemia, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic lower back pain, sciatica, chronic leg pain and arthritis which severely limits his ability to walk, and eye conditions that severely impaired his vision, his lawyers said. .

“Every inmate has an absolute right to proper treatment while in custody,” Gable said. “But they have no say in when and where they receive their treatment, and there is absolutely nothing in either doctor’s report to indicate that this treatment cannot be performed in Los Angeles.”

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