Harvey Weinstein has been extradited to Los Angeles to face further sexual assault charges
By Lauren del Valle and Eric Levenson, CNN
Harvey Weinstein was moved early Tuesday morning to California per a court order, the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision confirmed to CNN.
Attorney Norman Effman confirmed to CNN that Weinstein is now in the custody of Los Angeles County and his attorneys anticipate that he will be arraigned on an indictment there Wednesday.
Weinstein, the disgraced former movie producer, faces a total of 11 counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles County involving five women.
Last month, a New York judge approved the extradition to Los Angeles County so that the imprisoned former movie producer can face further sexual assault charges.
Weinstein was found guilty last year in New York of first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape. He is serving a 23-year prison sentence at a maximum security prison outside of Buffalo, according to state records.
The 69-year-old is in declining health and his attorneys have decried the lengthy sentence as a de facto life sentence. His legal team filed an appeal earlier this year, saying a biased judge and a biased juror tainted the trial.
The charges in Los Angeles County include four counts of forcible rape, four counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint, and one count of sexual penetration by use of force. The alleged assaults took place between 2004 and 2013.
He was originally charged in Los Angeles County in January 2020 with sexually assaulting two women in separate incidents over a two-day period in 2013. In April, prosecutors added an additional charge that stems from an alleged incident at a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010, and in October prosecutors added six new charges.
He has denied the allegations, according to his spokesman Juda Engelmayer.
“Harvey Weinstein has always maintained that every one of his physical encounters throughout his entire life have been consensual. That hasn’t changed,” Engelmayer said.
The court hearing comes more than three years after investigative stories by The New York Times and The New Yorker revealed Weinstein’s alleged history of sexual abuse, harassment and secret settlements as he used his influence as a Hollywood power broker to take advantage of young women.
The revelations led to a wave of women speaking publicly about the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and harassment in what’s known as the #MeToo movement.
The-CNN-Wire
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