Disgraced filmmaker and rapist Harvey Weinstein has been cooling his heels in a state prison in New York since March of this year, (He was actually transferred there on his birthday.) But there are some people on the opposite coast who would still like to have a word with him. Quite a few people, actually, and they are all either prosecutors or more women who have brought forward credible rape and sexual assault claims against him. You can add two more names to that list this week, as six new charges were filed against him in Los Angeles over alleged assaults on a couple more female victims. Something tells me that this wasn’t the sort of popularity and attention Weinstein was looking for. (NPR)

The Los Angeles County District Attorney announced six new felony sex crime charges Friday against former movie producer and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein. DA Jackie Lacey’s office accused Weinstein of an additional three counts each of felony forcible rape and forcible oral copulation involving two alleged victims.

That brings the total number of criminal counts in Los Angeles to 11. The new charges include an incident between September 2004 and September 2005 where Weinstein allegedly raped a woman at a hotel in Beverly Hills, and another incident in which Weinstein allegedly raped another woman at a Beverly Hills hotel on two separate occasions in November 2009 and November 2010.

“I am thankful to the first women who reported these crimes and whose courage have given strength to others to come forward,” Lacey said in a statement.

Weinstein was already facing additional charges in California before these new indictments were announced. He had been scheduled to be transferred to Los Angeles to stand trial back in May, but that move was delayed because of the COVID outbreak. With the plague situation not having reached a final resolution yet, the next hearing to determine if he can be sent out west won’t take place until December. His attorneys are obviously hoping to delay that as long as possible.

It really hasn’t been a good summer for Harvey Weinstein at all. In addition to his convictions on multiple counts of rape and sexual assault and the complete collapse of his business fortunes, his two ex-wifes went to court in July and had six million dollars of his remaining assets frozen. According to people familiar with his situation, that move has further complicated his attempts at appealing his convictions in New York and his preparations for trial in California. All of his money is currently tied up in bankruptcy proceedings or under the control of his ex-wives, so he can’t even afford to pay his legal team.

Harvey Weinstein is now 68 years old. He’s supposedly not in the best of health and he’s already facing 23 years behind bars. It will be more than a decade before he can even be considered for parole, assuming his appeals fail, and if he’s convicted on all of the counts currently stacking up in California he could have quite a bit more time added to his sentence. In other words, it’s looking increasingly likely that Weinstein will end up dying in prison, getting the equivalent of the death penalty. I don’t know how much comfort that will bring to his many victims, but at least the system was able to finally bring him to justice, even if that justice was massively delayed.

Then again, perhaps he’ll fool us all. Keep in mind that the guy tested positive for the novel coronavirus back in March while he was in jail and he managed to shake that off. He might be tougher than he looks.

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