Harvey Weinstein misses court hearing due to flooding
Aug 06, 2022
Washington [US], August 6 : The latest hearing in disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault case was delayed recently due to flooding.
According to Variety, a flood caused a lockdown at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility, the Los Angeles prison where the convicted rapist is currently behind bars. Mark Werksman, one of Weinstein's attorneys, told members of the media who were sitting in the courtroom, "Just a routine delay."
Judge Lisa B. Lench stated that "It is my understanding that there was a flood at Twin Towers where Mr Weinstein is housed. It is now 9:40."
Originally the hearing was scheduled to commence at 8:30 am. It was the latest court date, leading up to Weinstein's long-awaited Los Angeles sexual assault and rape trial.
The hearing has now been pushed by Judge Lench to August 10 but first dealt with a few matters regarding the defence's subpoenas to witnesses.
Variety reported that earlier this week, in another hearing for the case, Judge Lench ruled to limit the amount of information that could be obtained by Weinstein's defence team for the upcoming trial.
She approved the prosecution's motion to quash subpoenas from four witnesses for their correspondence, including personal emails and texts dating as far back as 2004 with one of the alleged victims.
However, at that hearing, the judge said she wouldn't prevent the defence from serving future subpoenas to victims and would not ask them to notify the prosecution in advance of their attempts to serve.
On Friday morning, discussions got a bit heated with the prosecution objecting to Weinstein's attorney, Alan Jackson, who argued that the defence has the right to subpoena witnesses without giving advanced notice to the prosecution.
Weinstein is scheduled to go on trial on October 10 in LA He faces 11 charges of rape and sexual assault from five women, reported Variety.
The trial comes after nationwide court delays due to the pandemic, during which Weinstein was in prison, so far serving roughly 2.5 years of his 23-year sentence, after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in his New York trial in February 2020.
As per Variety, that verdict was recently upheld by a New York appeals court in June. It ensured that despite the outcome of the upcoming LA trial, the disgraced Hollywood producer will stay behind bars.
