A NEW YORK judge has threatened to jail Harvey Weinstein for using his mobile phone in court.
“Mr Weinstein, is this really the way you want to end up in jail… by texting and violating a court order?” Judge James Burke said, cutting off the accused Hollywood producer before he could answer.
He made the comments as prosecutors requested that bail be revoked and the 67-year-old jailed while the trial is ongoing.
Weinstein, who recently underwent back surgery and hobbled into court using a walking frame, is charged in New York with raping a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and forcibly performing a sex act on another woman in the city in 2006. Weinstein claims any sexual activity was consensual.
The judge overseeing the sexual assault trial has ordered jury selection to begin as scheduled, rejecting a defence request for a “cooling-off period” after prosecutors in Los Angeles brought new charges against the fallen movie mogul.
Judge Burke, sitting in New York, denied a request for the delay after Weinstein’s lawyers questioned the timing of the new charges, which were filed on Monday.
“For a prosecutor, this is Christmas morning – the morning of jury selection to have him smeared everywhere,” said one of Weinstein’s lawyers, Arthur Aidala, who asked for the delay in jury selection.
The judge also denied a request from prosecutors to revoke Weinstein’s bail and jail him until the trial is over, saying the new case against him in Los Angeles increased his incentive to flee.
“There is a grave risk that this defendant will realise at some point that the evidence is overwhelming,” said assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi.
Scores of potential jurors were summoned for a selection process that could take weeks, given the heavy publicity surrounding the case and the way Weinstein has been cast as the chief villain of the MeToo movement.
Once one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, Weinstein has now been accused of sexual assault, harassment and misconduct by dozens of women, from famous actresses to assistants at his former company.
The allegations began surfacing publicly in October 2017 and sparked the MeToo movement, as well as investigations in multiple places.
Los Angeles prosecutors charged Weinstein on Monday with sexually assaulting two women there on successive nights during Oscars week in 2013.
Lawyers for Weinstein had no immediate comment on the new charges, though he has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
Los Angeles district attorney Jackie Lacey said the timing of the charges was unrelated to the New York trial.
She said the case took more than two years to build because the women were reluctant to provide all the information necessary, and the filing happened on the first business day when all the necessary people could gather.
There is some connection between the cases. One of the Los Angeles accusers is expected to give evidence in the New York case to help prosecutors establish what they say was Weinstein’s pattern of forcing himself on young actresses and women trying to break into Hollywood.
Weinstein is expected to appear in court in California after his New York trial, Ms Lacey said.
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