Harvey Weinstein is back in NYC court after a hospital stay

NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein was expected in a New York City courtroom Thursday as authorities consider California’s extradition request to serve his pending sentence for a 2022 rape conviction in Los Angeles.

The 16-year prison sentence that Weinstein received in 2023 for raping a woman at a Los Angeles film festival in 2013 was at stake while he was behind bars in New York after being found guilty of rape in Manhattan in 2020. overturned late last month, wiping out the 23-year prison sentence.

The hearing in Queens criminal court on Thursday morning, days after Weinstein left a city hospital, is related to California’s request, according to prosecutors and defense attorneys.

The 72-year-old nevertheless remains in custody in New York as the Manhattan district attorney attempts to retry him. At a hearing last week, prosecutors said they could be ready as early as September, and that at least one in two alleged victims was willing to testify again.

In that case, the once-powerful former movie mogul is accused of raping an aspiring actor in 2013 and sexually assaulting a TV and film production assistant in 2006. He denies the charges.

In overturning the conviction, New York’s highest court ruled that the judge biased Weinstein with inappropriate statements, including by having other women testify about allegations he was not accused of.

The 2020 conviction was heralded at the time as a milestone in the #MeToo movement, an era that began in 2017 with a flood of accusations against Weinstein.

Weinstein was sent to serve his sentence in a state prison in upstate New York. After being transferred to city custody following the appeals court decision, he was sent to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan, where his publicist says he was treated for pneumonia and other medical problems. He was taken to the city’s Rikers Island jail complex on Monday.