Harvey Weinstein fails to have 2 sexual assault charges dismissed, wins 1

A judge Thursday rejected a bid to dismiss two sex-related charges against disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein based on claims they are precluded by the statute of limitations, but agreed to allow the prosecution the opportunity to amend a third count challenged by the defense.

“You can put a fork in count 5. It’s done,” one of Weinstein’s attorneys, Mark Werksman, told reporters outside court following Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench’s ruling on the felony count of sexual battery by restraint — the only charge involving one of the five alleged victims in the 11-count indictment handed up by a grand jury in March.

The defense attorney said “one-fifth of the prosecution’s case has been gutted,” adding that the defense believes there is no factual basis to allow that count involving the alleged May 2010 crime to proceed.

The judge sustained the defense’s challenge on that charge, but agreed to Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson’s request to amend the indictment.

Weinstein’s attorneys unsuccessfully challenged two other counts — forcible oral copulation and forcible rape involving another alleged victim between September 2004 and September 2005.

The defense believes either the judge or a “reviewing court will come to the proper conclusion that those two counts are defective as well,” said another of Weinstein’s attorneys, Alan Jackson, a former veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor who successfully prosecuted record producer Phil Spector for murder for the 2003 shooting death of actress Lana Clarkson at his Alhambra home.

Weinstein, who is due back in court for a pretrial hearing Sept. 13, was brought into the downtown Los Angeles courtroom in a wheelchair while dressed in brown jail clothes. The judge denied the defense’s request to allow the defendant to wear civilian clothes given the presence of a still camera and a video camera during the hearing.

“Showing up in court in a rumpled brown L.A. County jail jumpsuit deprives a defendant of the presumption of innocence because it makes him look guilty,” Werksman said outside court.

Weinstein, 69, was extradited July 20 from New York, where he has been sentenced to 23 years in prison for raping an aspiring actress and a criminal sex act against a former production assistant.

He was brought into a downtown Los Angeles courtroom in a wheelchair a day later, with one of his attorneys entering a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Weinstein’s legal team had tried to block his transfer from New York to Los Angeles until he was “medically fit” to be moved. A court document filed in Los Angeles by the defense contended that Weinstein was in “urgent need of medical treatment to save his eyesight, and that this treatment could take anywhere from 24 to 36 months.” The defense had also asked a judge in Los Angeles to delay the transfer until Weinstein’s medical treatment is completed.

In court papers filed earlier this month, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office asserted that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is capable of providing medical care to Weinstein.

At a court appearance last week, Superior Court Judge Sergio C. Tapia II granted the defense’s request for a medical evaluation for Weinstein.

Los Angeles County prosecutors initially charged Weinstein in January 2020 with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by use of force involving one woman on Feb. 18, 2013, and sexual battery by restraint involving another woman a day later.

He was subsequently charged in April 2020 with sexual battery by restraint — one of the counts challenged by the defense — involving a woman in May 2010. In November 2020, prosecutors added six more counts — three counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation — involving two alleged victims in Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2010.

A grand jury subsequently indicted Weinstein on the same charges.

In a statement released after Weinstein’s arraignment, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said the case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills police departments and the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation.

Weinstein could face a potential maximum of 140 years to life in state prison if convicted as charged, the District Attorney’s Office said earlier.

He was indicted March 15 by the grand jury on four counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of sexual penetration by use of force.

After last week’s court hearing, Werksman said the latest allegations against his client are not corroborated by any scientific or forensic evidence, adding that he believes Weinstein “will be acquitted” if he gets a fair trial.

Attorney Gloria Allred, who said she represents two of the alleged victims, said last week that it was “long overdue” for Weinstein to appear in a courtroom in connection with the Los Angeles case.

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