Updated July 20, 1:15 p.m.: Harvey Weinstein is being extradited to California today, his spokesman and authorities confirmed to Vulture. “This morning at approximately 9:25 custody of Mr. Harvey Weinstein was handed over to the appropriate officials for transport to the state of California per a court order,” the New York State Department of Corrections said in a statement. A spokesman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office said that they couldn’t provide information at this time.
Harvey Weinstein will be extradited to Los Angeles for sex-crime charges, a judge decided Tuesday afternoon. During the extradition hearing, prosecutors revealed that authorities in Los Angeles would likely try transferring him to California in the first half of July.
This development came after more than a year of delays; Weinstein’s transfer was postponed repeatedly for things ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to Weinstein’s declining health.
“I will respectfully deny your petition,” Judge Kenneth Case told Weinstein’s attorney, Norman Effman, of his latest request for a delay. Case also denied Effman’s request for a ten-day stay — basically, a hold on this ruling going into effect — telling him it’s “more appropriate” to petition an appeals court.
Weinstein, who appeared in court virtually via video from Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York, put his head in his hands moments after Case’s ruling.
Prosecutors in L.A. first announced sex-crime charges against Weinstein on January 6, 2020 — one day before the disgraced movie producer’s Manhattan rape trial began. Los Angeles prosecutors alleged that Weinstein raped one woman and sexually assaulted another woman in separate incidents over two days in 2013.
That April, the L.A. District Attorney’s office charged Weinstein with another count for an alleged sexual assault on a woman at a Beverly Hills hotel in May 2010. L.A. prosecutors then said in October 2020 that Weinstein faced six more counts: three felony counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation. Weinstein has since been hit with an indictment on sex-crimes charges in L.A.
Weinstein is now serving a 23-year sentence following his conviction on
first-degree criminal sexual act and third-degree rape on February 24, 2020. He is appealing his conviction.
Asked for comment on the judge’s decision, a spokesman for Weinstein said in an email: “We are disappointed by the judge’s ruling but we are appealing his decision in New York and we have filed a habeas corpus petition in the Los Angeles Superior Court to prevent the Los Angeles District Attorney from transporting Mr. Weinstein to Los Angeles until he can receive the medical care he needs in New York.”
