October trial date scheduled in Harvey Weinstein sex-charges case

A Los Angeles judge Friday set an Oct. 10 trial date for disgraced former film producer Harvey Weinstein, who is facing sex-related charges involving five women.

Weinstein, 70, wearing brown jail clothes, appeared in court in a wheelchair for the scheduling hearing. He is facing 11 felony charges.

His trial will begin with jurors being summoned to Los Angeles Superior Court to fill out questionnaires gauging their familiarity with the case and ability to serve. The trial, including the jury selection process, is expected to take about eight weeks.

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.

Weinstein was subsequently charged in April 2020 with sexual battery by restraint involving another woman. 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.

The grand jury subsequently indicted him on the same charges.

Weinstein 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.

Weinstein produced such films as “Shakespeare in Love,” which in 1999 received the best picture Oscar, and “Pulp Fiction.”