Harvey Weinstein has pleaded with a New York judge to expedite the retrial in his landmark #MeToo case due to his failing health, expressing, “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”
Weinstein has chronic myeloid leukaemia, diabetes, and heart issues, and informed the judge that he was struggling amidst harsh conditions at New York City’s Rikers Island jail complex.
“Every day I’m at Rikers Island, it’s a mystery to me how I’m still walking,” he shared with the court in Manhattan. “I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with.”
The 72-year-old is awaiting a retrial after his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction involving two women was overturned by New York’s highest court in April last year. He has consistently asserted that any sexual activity he engaged in was consensual.
Pic: Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times via AP, Pool
During the hearing on Wednesday, Judge Curtis Farber mentioned that the retrial would commence on 15 April.
However, Weinstein requested him to reschedule it with another unrelated case the judge has set for March.
Weinstein is being held at the Rikers Island Prison complex. File pic: Reuters
The disgraced movie mogul arrived at the court in a wheelchair over half an hour after the scheduled start time of the hearing. In court, he complained about receiving the wrong medication from jail officers and being picked up late.
“I’m asking and begging you, your honour,” Weinstein pleaded. He informed the judge about facing a “serious emergency situation” and expressed his desire to “get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible”.
He disclosed to the court that at times he struggles to breathe and anticipated needing hospital care soon.
In December, he was admitted to the hospital after an “alarming blood test result”.
Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala, pictured outside court in October last year, has also asked the judge to hear the case as soon as possible. Pic: AP/Yuki Iwamura
During a previous court session, Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala also urged for an earlier retrial “in the interest of humanity,” stating that his client is “dying of cancer and is an innocent man right now in the state of New York”.
Judge Farber mentioned that he would explore the possibility of starting the trial a few days earlier than planned if feasible, although the decision was made after consulting Weinstein’s attorneys and prosecutors.
The judge also made a significant ruling on the retrial – affirming a separate charge based on an accusation from a woman not involved in the original case.
Weinstein’s legal team attempted to dismiss the charge, arguing that prosecutors introduced it to strengthen their case with a third accuser, but their efforts were unsuccessful.
Despite the overturned New York conviction, he remains in custody due to a separate 2022 conviction for the rape of an actress in Los Angeles in 2013. His legal team has filed an appeal in that case.
Weinstein was once a prominent figure in Hollywood – co-founding film and television production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company, producing renowned films such as the Oscar-winning Shakespeare In Love, Pulp Fiction, and The Crying Game.
However, after several women came forward with allegations in 2017, fueling the #MeToo movement, charges were brought against him.
Last September, prosecutors in the UK dropped two charges of indecent assault filed against Weinstein in 2022, citing there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction”.