NEW YORK _ Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein will have to weather out the pandemic in New York before he's brought to California to face the next round of rape and sex assault charges against him, authorities said Tuesday.
Prosecutors in Los Angeles said they had formally "initiated" their request to receive temporary custody of Weinstein from New York's Department of Corrections on March 23, but told the New York Daily News on Tuesday that the global pandemic had slowed the process.
"The virus has delayed the processing of the extradition paperwork. There is no time estimate on when he will appear in a Los Angeles courtroom," said a spokesman for the Los Angeles district attorney's office.
The "Pulp Fiction" producer has been awaiting extradition at Wende Correctional Facility near Buffalo, more than 300 miles north of New York City, since March 18. He was reportedly one of two inmates at the upstate prison to have contracted COVID-19, within just a few days of his arrival.
Weinstein faces one felony count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint in his California case.
One of his alleged L.A. County victims, Lauren Young, testified at his trial in Manhattan, where she described to jurors how the disgraced movie mogul sexually assaulted her in a hotel room at the Montage Beverly Hills in February 2013.
Weinstein, 67, was sentenced to 23 years in prison in Manhattan Supreme Court on March 11 for sexually assaulting his former production assistant Miriam Haley and raping actress Jessica Mann.
