EXCLUSIVE: Harvey Weinstein is back to facing 11 sexual assault charges in LA as prosecutors file amended indictment for a THIRD time - two weeks after judge dismissed one count that was beyond statute of limitations
Harvey Weinstein is facing 11 sexual assault charges in Los Angeles once again after prosecutors filed an amended grand jury indictment against the disgraced film mogul for a third time.
The 69-year-old appeared in court on Monday shackled in a wheelchair and clad in brown prison overalls and a blue protective mask during a hearing over the revised complaint.
Prosecutors have been seeking to indict Weinstein on a total of 11 rape and sexual assault charges involving five women in LA and dating from 2004 to 2013.
But the charges were reduced to 10 during an August 12 hearing after his attorneys successfully persuaded Judge Lisa Lench to dismiss one of them, sexual battery by restraint on a woman at a Beverly Hills Hotel in 2010, arguing it was beyond the statute of limitations.
Prosecutors filed an amended indictment on Friday seeking to charge Harvey Weinstein (pictured in court on July 29) with 11 counts of sexual assault and rape
At an earlier hearing, Weinstein's charges were reduced to 10 after his attorneys successfully persuaded Judge Lisa Lench to dismiss one of them, sexual battery on a woman at a Beverly Hills Hotel in 2010, arguing it was beyond the statute of limitations
Lench, however, who first dismissed the charge at an earlier hearing on July 29, offered the district attorney's office yet another chance to reconvene the grand jury and return a new indictment, but offered no specific instructions - or guarantees.
The renewed indictment was filed in court on Friday with a hearing scheduled for Monday.
During the hearing, Judge Lench told Weinstein that he had a right to be arraigned today on the amended indictment but said he could waive that right to a later date if he wished.
'Do you wish to waive that right?' she asked, to which he replied: 'Yes your honor.'
The arraignment was rescheduled for September 20.
Weinstein already entered not guilty pleas on all 11 charges when he appeared in court last month after being extradited to LA from New York, where he's serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault of two women.
Judge Lisa B. Lench (pictured) first dismissed the count of sexual battery by restraint as too old and outside the statute of limitations during a July 29 hearing
If convicted, he's looking at a maximum total sentence of 140 years in prison.
The previously-dismissed count dates back to May 2010.
Weinstein was first charged with it in January 2020, before the statute of limitations had expired.
Prosecutors then got an indictment from a grand jury on an identical count six months later, shortly after the statute of limitations had expired.
The judge agreed with Weinstein attorney Alan Jackson that the grand jury indictment was a new prosecution, and therefore was coming too late.
'The people are grasping to try to save something that is unsalvageable,' Jackson said in court at the time. 'They did it, they blew it, they can't fix it.'
Prosecutors argued that it was a continuation of the same case.
In addition to sexual battery, the LA charges include rape, forced oral copulation and forced sexual penetration.
Most of the alleged crimes happened at LA area hotels where New York-based Weinstein - who claims innocence and insists that any sexual activity was consensual - was staying during visits to Hollywood.
At a July 21 hearing, his lawyer, Mark Werksman, was granted a request for a medical evaluation of the one-time film mogul who is reportedly suffering from spinal stenosis and is blind in one eye.
Weinstein - who is being held at the Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles - used his medical ailments as a reason to hold up his extradition to LA for many months.
Harvey Weinstein's attorneys Alan Jackson (L) and Mark Werksman speak outside the courthouse during a hearing for Weinstein at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on August 12
Weinstein (pictured in 2018) had pleaded not guilty pleas on all 11 charges when he appeared in court last month after being extradited to LA from New York, where he's serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault of two women
And outside that July 21 hearing, women's rights lawyer Gloria Allred - who represents one of Weinstein's New York victims and two of his alleged victims in LA - scorned the delaying tactics in an interview with DailyMail.com.
'I am happy that this day has come and I'm looking for a fair trial here in Los Angeles,' she said.
'Mr. Weinstein and his defense have been delaying his extradition to Los Angeles for a long time,' she said. 'But he finally ran out of excuses.
'It's absurd that he claimed he needed to stay in New York because he needed medical care. We have excellent medical care here in LA. 'I think that it's important for him to face trial here in LA because some of his victims here have not had their day in court.
'Justice may have been delayed in Los Angeles, but it's not going to be denied.'
