Queens judge orders Harvey Weinstein to remain on Rikers ahead of retrial
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Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein appeared in Queens Criminal Court on Monday, Aug. 19, 2024. AP file photo by Curtis Means
By Jacob Kaye
For the most part, nothing was out of the ordinary Monday morning inside Queens Criminal Court’s AP2, an all-purpose courtroom in the basement of the courthouse on Queens Boulevard.
Dozens of people waited for their name to be called by the officer commanding the room from just in front of the judge. Public defenders milled about, whispering to their clients and striking deals with prosecutors. Most defendants spent no more than a couple of minutes before Judge Marty Lentz, leaving the room in a constant, controlled motion.
At least, that was the case until one of the most notorious criminal defendants of the 21st Century was brought into the courtroom. It was the first time the room fell completely silent all morning.
Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood mogul who is awaiting the start of his retrial on rape and sexual assault charges in Manhattan, appeared before Lentz after the governor issued a warrant ordering Weinstein to remain in the state’s custody on Rikers Island until the conclusion of his case.
Once his New York case is completed, Weinstein will be sent back to Los Angeles, where he was convicted of rape and sentenced to 16 years in prison in 2022.
His 2020 New York conviction, for which he received a 23-year sentence, was overturned earlier this year by the state’s top court, which said that a Manhattan trial judge had improperly allowed those testifying against Weinstein to talk about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Now facing a retrial, Weinstein’s proceeding on Monday was entirely administrative, and took less than five minutes to complete. The fact that it took place in Queens was mostly out of convenience – the courthouse is closer to Rikers Island than any other in the city.
Weinstein has recently been shuffled between the notorious jail complex and a locked ward in Bellevue Hospital, where he received treatment last month for a slew of health problems, including COVID-19 and pneumonia.
Weinstein, who has denied all the charges brought against him, was brought into the courtroom on Monday in a wheelchair, which an officer struggled to fit through a gate leading to the well of the courtroom. The disgraced producer’s right hand was cuffed to the chair. For the entirety of the appearance, he held a book and a notebook in his lap.
The 72-year-old’s trial is expected to begin in November. When his New York trial ends, Weinstein will be sent back to California to serve his prison sentence, regardless of how the trial in Manhattan concludes.
