LOS ANGELES: Harvey Weinstein pleaded not responsible in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday to 4 counts of rape and 7 different sexual assault counts. Weinstein denies rapes, sexual assaults in Los Angeles court docket.
Sheriff’s deputies introduced the 69-year-old convicted rapist into court docket in a wheelchair. He was sporting a brown jail jumpsuit and face masks. Legal professional Mark Werksman entered the plea for the disgraced film mogul a day after he was extradited to California from New York, the place he was serving a 23-year jail time period.
He now awaits a second trial on a second coast, and the potential for one other prolonged sentence. Weinstein’s fees contain 5 girls and span from 2004 to 2013. Most are mentioned to have taken place within the accommodations in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles that the New York-based Weinstein would make his headquarters for Hollywood enterprise.
Some came about throughout Oscars week, when his movies have been perennial contenders earlier than the #MeToo motion introduced him down.
He pleaded not responsible to 4 counts of rape, 4 counts of forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one depend of sexual penetration by use of pressure, fees that collectively might convey a sentence of 140 years. The ladies weren’t named within the charging paperwork.
A New York jury discovered Weinstein responsible of raping an aspiring actress in 2013 in a Manhattan resort room and forcibly performing oral intercourse on a TV and movie manufacturing assistant in 2006 at his Manhattan residence.
He’s interesting that conviction, in search of a brand new trial. Weinstein maintains his innocence and contends that any sexual exercise was consensual. Los Angeles prosecutors first charged Weinstein in January 2020, simply as jury choice was getting underway within the New York Metropolis case.
Extra fees have been added later within the 12 months, and in March, he was indicted by an LA County grand jury. The pandemic and procedural delays meant that Weinstein’s extradition took nicely over a 12 months. His attorneys cited his declining well being as they sought to maintain him at a state jail close to Buffalo, New York, till jury choice started within the Los Angeles trial.
Weinstein’s time in custody in California will depend towards his New York sentence, officers mentioned.
