Harvey Weinstein Los Angeles trial: Jury selection to begin Monday

LOS ANGELES - Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the trial of former film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was extradited from New York to Los Angeles in connection with sex-related counts involving five women.

Weinstein, now 70, was initially charged in January 2020 by Los Angeles County prosecutors with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by use of force involving one woman on Feb. 18, 2013, and sexual battery by restraint involving another woman a day later.

Weinstein was subsequently charged in April 2020 with sexual battery by restraint involving another woman. In November 2020, prosecutors added six more counts -- three counts each of forcible rape and forcible oral copulation - - involving two alleged victims in Beverly Hills between 2004 and 2010.

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The grand jury subsequently indicted Weinstein on the same charges.

Weinstein was extradited from New York, where he was convicted of raping an aspiring actress and a criminal sex act against a former production assistant. The state's highest court has since agreed to hear his appeal involving that case.

The trial in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom -- including the jury selection process -- is expected to last about two months.

Weinstein -- who remains behind bars -- produced such films as "Shakespeare in Love," which in 1999 received the best picture Oscar, and "Pulp Fiction."

A series of articles in the New York Times and the New Yorker during 2017 detailed an extensive history of sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, which lead to his downfall and became a catalyst for the #MeToo Movement.