Harvey Weinstein begged a New York judge to move up his retrial date, claiming he's in poor health and doesn't know "how much longer I can hold on. A frail Weinstein was rolled into court Wednesday in a wheelchair, wearing a black suit and holding onto a book. Beset with health problems, Weinstein told Judge Curtis Farber of Manhattan Supreme Court that he "can't hold on" much longer and was requesting a speedy retrial of his conviction on rape and sexual assault chages in New York, which was overturned last year after the New York Court of Appeals ruled he didn't receive a fair trial because women uninvolved in the charges were allowed to testify.
Weinstein claimed he "won't be there" for the scheduled start on April 15 if he is consigned to remain on Rikers Island, pleading for the retrial to be set even a week earlier on April 7. I want to be out of this hellhole. Everyday is a struggle in my heart. Weinstein, 72, was also indicted in September on new sex crimes charges alleged by three different victims in New York City.
Weinstein was convicted in of third-degree rape for sexually assaulting an actress in and for committing a criminal sex act by forcibly performing oral sex on a former production assistant in He was sentenced to 23 years in prison and began serving his term at Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York.
Related: Harvey Weinstein Indicted by N. Grand Jury on Additional Charges: Prosecutors. Weinstein was also convicted in California in on charges he raped an actress in a Beverly Hills hotel. That conviction, which netted him a 16 year sentence, still stands. He spent time in Bellevue Hospital's prison wing after being diagnosed with leukemia and facing other health ailments, but has since been transferred back to Rikers.
Nearly other women have accused Weinstein of sexual harassment and sexual assault. The initial allegations against Weinstein in , when he was one of the most powerful figures in Hollywod, sparked the global MeToo movement.
