Harvey Weinstein wasn’t the kind of criminal defendant New York lawmakers had in mind when they passed a law this year eliminating cash bail for most nonviolent crimes.
Nevertheless, the disgraced producer is due in court on Friday for one of many proceedings that courts across the state are scheduling in order to apprise defendants of the reforms set to take effect 1 January 2020.
For poorer defendants facing lesser charges, these appearances could mean release from jail or refunds for those who have posted bail.
Those outcomes are less likely to happen in Weinstein’s case, which is scheduled to go to trial, after being delayed from the fall, on 6 January and last up to two months.
Weinstein, 67, has pleaded not guilty to charges he raped a woman in a Manhattan hotel room in 2013 and performed a forcible sex act on a different woman in 2006. He is free on $1m bail and maintains that any sexual activity was consensual.
Weinstein’s deep pockets have given him plenty of freedom as he awaits trial on the charges, which could put him in prison for the rest of his life.
Out on bail since his arrest last year, the disgraced producer has been spotted hobnobbing at New York City nightclubs and getting jeered at a recent actors’ showcase.
But poorer defendants who have been hauled into courthouses for lesser offenses have ended up in jail if they can’t afford a bail of even a few hundred dollars. That financial and fairness divide was one New York lawmakers were aiming to solve with sweeping bail reforms.
Among the changes: the bail law signed by New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, in April eliminates pre-trial detention and money bail for the wide majority of misdemeanor and nonviolent felony cases. It also mandates that police issue court appearance tickets instead of arresting people for low-level offenses.
The reforms were motivated in part by the case of Kalief Browder, who was denied bail after he was arrested at 16 on a charge that he stole a bag, and then spent three years in custody, including long stints in solitary confinement at New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail, before the case was dropped without a trial.
Browder later killed himself and a documentary profiled a “broken” criminal justice system.
People charged with rape and other serious sexual offenses can still be ordered to post bail or be put into pre-trial detention despite the 2020 law changes.
Weinstein will get a firsthand look at how the state’s judiciary is gearing up for the changes on Friday, even though they are unlikely to affect his case. He is expected to show up for the hearing.
