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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvey Weinstein’s legal professional informed the choose at his sexual assault trial Tuesday that circumstances within the holding cell the place he’s being stored after court docket are “unhygienic” and “virtually medieval.”
Legal professional Mark Werksman requested Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Decide Lisa B. Lench for assist with the problem initially of the second day of jury choice within the former film mogul’s trial on 11 counts of rape and sexual assault.
He stated Weinstein is being left alone in his wheelchair for 3 or 4 hours in an “unsanitary, fetid” holding cell on the courthouse earlier than he’s taken again to jail.
“It’s virtually medieval, the circumstances,” Werksman stated. “He’s 70 years previous. I’m nervous about him surviving this ordeal with no coronary heart assault or stroke.”
Weinstein, and the panel of 71 jurors who have been introduced in to fill out an preliminary questionnaire on Tuesday, weren’t but current throughout Werksman’s remarks.
Lench replied that she would speak to deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division, which runs the jails and transports inmates to court docket, however that her energy was restricted over the matter.
“I’m not minimizing it, I’m simply unsure there’s lots to be executed,” she stated.
Weinstein, who’s allowed to alter right into a swimsuit from his jail apparel for trial, was wheeled into the courtroom quickly after, and slowly and punctiliously climbed right into a seat on the protection desk.
Werksman then raised the problem once more, suggesting Weinstein didn’t have a rest room to make use of within the cell.
Lench replied, “He’s not disadvantaged of a rest room, there’s a bathroom within the cell. I’m not going to let the file mirror that he’s disadvantaged of a rest room.”
Werksman stated he didn’t imply to recommend there was no bathroom in any respect, however stated “It’s unhygienic, it’s just about unusable, it’s medieval.”
An e mail searching for remark from the Sheriff’s Division was not instantly returned.
Weinstein’s attorneys have introduced up his failing well being repeatedly each throughout his New York trial, the place he was sentenced to 23 years in jail for convictions of rape and sexual assault, and in his pre-trial hearings in Los Angeles.
He was hospitalized with chest pains and had a coronary heart process instantly after he was discovered responsible in New York in February of 2020, and was identified with COVID-19 in jail within the first weeks of the pandemic.
His legal professionals have stated he has diabetes and is “technically blind.” They’ve requested the choose for permission to see an outdoor dentist as a result of the one he sees in jail retains pulling out his tooth.
In court docket, he seems pale and frail, trying nothing just like the bearish man who as soon as lorded over the Oscars yearly.
Weinstein’s trial, which comes 5 years after girls’s tales about him gave momentum to the #MeToo motion, is predicted to final eight weeks. With the sluggish means of screening and deciding on jurors from a pool or greater than 200, opening statements aren’t anticipated till Oct. 24.
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