Former Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein appeared Wednesday in the New York County Courthouse in Manhattan to seek a speedier retrial on rape and sexual assault charges.
Weinstein’s retrial is scheduled to start on April 15, but he says his health is poor and he requires a speedier trial.
Weinstein, 72, has been held at Rikers Island since 2024 and says he suffers from several medical conditions that worsen every day that he is jailed while awaiting next month’s retrial.
Weinstein during a January 29 hearing asked Judge Curtis Farber to move up his retrial date due to a “serious medical condition” and because he wants to “get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible,” CBS News reported.
“Every day I’m at Rikers, it’s a mystery to me how I’m still walking,” Weinstein told the court. “I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with.”
Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on rape and sexual assault charges stemming from an alleged 2006 assault of an assistant and an alleged rape of an aspiring actress in 2013.
A New York jury found him guilty, and a judge sentenced him to 23 years in prison.
The New York Supreme Court overturned the conviction in 2024 after ruling the state trial judge erred in allowing prejudicial testimony from others who accused Weinstein of similar offenses that were not directly related to that trial.
The retrial includes a new charge accusing Weinstein of forcing a different woman to perform oral sex on him while inside a Manhattan hotel room in 2006.
Weinstein is suffering from chronic myeloid leukemia and was hospitalised in December and attended his January 29 hearing while in a wheelchair.
He has said he will die before the April 15 trial begins and claims his constitutional rights are being violated if the court does not move up the trial date.
Weinstein formerly led Miramax and was among the most influential movie moguls in Hollywood.
His career ended when several women accused him of using his status in Hollywood to coerce them into sexual encounters.
His subsequent conviction, which was overturned, helped usher in the #metoo movement that raised awareness of workplace sexual harassment and assaults on women. (UPI)
