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Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein was in court today for the first day of his trial to face sexual assault charges, stemming from a series of allegations that he sexually assaulted five women. The trial is expected to last three weeks. Prosecutors are expected to present the women’s testimony, while Weinstein’s lawyers will likely make the case that the women, who are all former employees of Weinstein, are lying about the allegations.
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(CBSLA/AP) LOS ANGELES – Harvey Weinstein, the infamous former film mogul and convicted rapist, appeared in a downtown courthouse only a day after being extradited from New York to Los Angeles to face accusations of sexually assaulting five women in the Los Angeles region.
Harvey Weinstein is facing sex assault allegations in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The date is July 21, 2024. (CBSLA)
In L.A. County Superior Court, Weinstein pled not guilty to 11 charges of sexual assault. He is being held without being able to post bail.
The 69-year-old Weinstein was freed by the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Tuesday morning and flown to Burbank Airport after a lengthy extradition battle. He was thereafter held without bail at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility.
Weinstein’s extradition to California was granted by a New York court in June, despite his attorneys’ plea to keep him in a state prison near Buffalo — where he is serving a 23-year term for a rape conviction last year — until jury selection in the L.A. case began. His attorneys argued he was medically unable to go.
Weinstein was accused by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office in January 2024 with sexually abusing two women at hotels in the Los Angeles region. Last April, prosecutors in Los Angeles County brought new allegations against him, alleging that he sexually attacked a third woman at a Beverly Hills hotel. They filed further accusations in October, alleging that he sexually assaulted two more women in Beverly Hills.
Between 2004 and 2013, all five alleged offenses took place. He is charged with 11 felonies, including four charges of forced rape and four counts of forceful oral copulation, two counts of sexual assault by restraint, and one act of sexual penetration by force.
In the New York lawsuit, celebrity attorney Gloria Allred represents two of the alleged L.A. victims as well as numerous witnesses.
Allred told CBSLA on Tuesday, “It just takes so much guts for people to testify.” “There is no financial incentive for them to do that; they are just acting in the interest of justice.”
In March of 2024, Weinstein was convicted by a jury in New York City on charges that he raped an aspiring actress in 2013 in a Manhattan hotel room and forcibly performed oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 at his Manhattan apartment.
If convicted as charged, he could face a maximum sentence of 140 years to life in state prison. Weinstein is allegedly facing a sealed indictment in Los Angeles containing the same allegations, allowing prosecutors to move his trial ahead more swiftly. In this case, there was no preliminary hearing.
“It’s a method to move a matter forward faster and bypass a preliminary hearing,” CBS2 legal expert Steve Meister said. “It does deprive the defense of the opportunity to cross-examine witnesses and victims prior to trial.”
His next court appearance is set on July 29.
(CBS Broadcasting Inc., Copyright 2024, All Rights Reserved.) This story was co-written by the Associated Press and City News Service.)
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