Harvey Weinstein Tries And Fails To Have Several Sexual Assault Charges Dismissed – NPR

Harvey Weinstein has lost his attempt to have three charges of sexual assault thrown out at a hearing today at the Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, but his attorneys did get the judge to agree that one of the charges should be amended.

The Associated Press reports that Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Lisa B. Lench rejected arguments by Weinstein’s lawyers that two of the multiple charges against the disgraced movie mogul had exceeded the statute of limitations. The AP also reports that Lench dismissed a third charge, but gave prosecutors permission to amend and refile it.

Weinstein is facing eleven charges of rape and sexual assault from five different women that date from 2004 to 2013. He pleaded not guilty to those charges last week after being extradited from New York to Los Angeles. Back in February 2020, Weinstein was convicted of raping and sexually assaulting two women and been serving part of his 23 year sentence at a state prison in upstate New York; he’ll be sent back there after his Los Angeles trial

Defense attorneys had argued that Weinstein was too weak to be extradited to Los Angeles in an attempt to delay a trial that had already been pushed back on the docket due to Covid-19 restrictions. If convicted of all the counts against him, Weinstein could face a maximum of 140 years in prison.