Harvey Weinstein doesn't think he can survive in Rikers "hellhole" until April
A judge set an April 15 trial date for Weinstein, but he begged for it to be sooner.
Photo: Steven Hirsch - Pool/Getty ImagesHarvey Weinstein thinks his days are numbered. Today, per The Hollywood Reporter, Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Curtis J. Farber set an April 15 date for his New York City trial. That’s not soon enough for the disgraced mogul, who proclaimed in court, “I won’t be there for April.”
“I’m asking and begging your honor to move your trial,” Weinstein said from his wheelchair in an address to the judge. “I can’t hold on anymore. I’m holding on because I want justice for myself.”
Weinstein has been held in New York’s Rikers Island prison while he awaits his trial, although he’s been transported several times to Bellevue Hospital to treat a number of ailments, including his recently diagnosed leukemia. In his address, he called the conditions at Rikers a “medieval situation,” and predicted he would be back at Bellevue “any day now.”
“I’m in a serious emergency situation, I’m begging for you to move your date. I need to get out of this hellhole as quickly as possible,” he continued, per THR. “There are so many people suffering at Rikers island. So many of the people I am with in prison are going through similar problems. They don’t have the same mouthpiece I have… It remains a stain on this city.”
Weinstein reportedly tried to get Farber to switch his trial date with one earlier on the calendar, even bumping it up a week to April 7 if possible. Farber responded that the earlier trial was ready to go, but he would see how it progressed.
Weinstein currently faces three charges for rape and sexual assault; one from this September and two related to the retrial for his overturned conviction from 2020. Judge Farber denied Weinstein’s attorney’s motion to dismiss the September indictment, but in October, did grant their motion to consolidate the three charges so Weinstein would face one trial instead of two.