Harvey Weinstein begs to get out of Rikers Island ‘hell hole’ in court
Alec Tabak/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Harvey Weinstein begged a Manhattan judge on Wednesday to put him on trial earlier than planned, saying he isn’t sure he will live until the spring while incarcerated in the “hell hole” that is the New York City jail complex.
“Every day I’m at Rikers Island it’s a mystery to me how I’m still walking,” Weinstein told the court while seated in a wheelchair. “I’m asking and begging you, your honor, I can’t hold on anymore. I’m holding on because I want justice for myself and I want this to be over with.”
Weinstein is scheduled to stand trial April 15. Judge Curtis Farber said he could not push it earlier because he is scheduled to preside over a murder trial that is “set in stone.”
Even so, Weinstein persisted.
“I beg you to switch your case and do so out of clemency,” Weinstein said. “I don’t know how much longer I can hold on.”
He complained that the conditions he faces in jail are complicating his medical issues, calling Rikers Island “a medieval situation.”
Weinstein — who has cancer and underwent emergency heart surgery in September — is suing New York City and its Department of Correction, alleging “medical negligence.”
“I’m begging the court to move your date so we can have that date instead and proceed with this trial as quickly as we can and get out of this hell hole,” Weinstein said Wednesday.
The disgraced film producer asked to start the trial even a bit earlier, April 7, because, he said, “every week counts.”
Farber said he would consider the request.
“If the lawyers report to me they can do it sooner then I’ll make myself available,” Farber said.
On Wednesday, Farber denied Weinstein’s bid to dismiss a new sexual assault charge from a woman who alleged Weinstein forced oral sex on her in a Manhattan hotel in 2006. Weinstein argued that prosecutors unduly delayed charging him.
“The application to dismiss denied,” Farber said. “The court has inspected the grand jury minutes and found them to be sufficient.”
Weinstein will stand trial on the new sexual assault charge at the same time he is retried on two other sexual assault charges after an earlier conviction was overturned on appeal.
Alfredo Pacheco, a Venezuelan migrant who earlier this year was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, displays a photo of himself and his brother Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, March 26, 2025, in Cicero, Illinois. Gonzalez, also a migrant from Venezuela, was set to donate a kidney for his brother but was arrested and now detained by ICE. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(BROADVIEW, Ill.) — A man who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month is expected to be released on Friday from a facility in Broadview, Illinois, after community advocates and officials appealed for his release so he can resume the kidney donation process in hopes of saving his brother’s life.
ICE records show that Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, a native of Venezuela who was detained on March 3 in Illinois, is being held in the Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana. But Peter Meinecke, an attorney representing Gonzalez, told ABC News on Wednesday that his client is expected to be released from ICE detention by Friday.
“I was in communication with the officer assigned to his case today. It sounds like they are going to release him under humanitarian parole, so that is still being coordinated,” Meinecke said. “The logistics of his release are not yet confirmed with ICE, but potentially as early as Friday, he could be released, and at which point he would be able to pursue the kidney donation. I don’t have any specifics regarding the duration of release.”
The duration and the conditions of Gonzalez’s expected release are unclear. ABC News reached out to ICE, but requests for comment were not returned.
Meinecke, an attorney with The Resurrection Project — a group advocating for Gonzalez’s release — told ABC News that Gonzalez’s brother, Jose Alfredo Pacheco, who suffers from kidney failure, reached out to the group earlier this month seeking support after Gonzalez was detained.
Speaking in Spanish, Pacheco addressed a crowd of supporters during a press conference on Monday and called for his brother’s release.
“My health is at serious risk—I have 100% kidney failure and depend on dialysis three times a week,” he said, according to a translation provided by The Resurrection Project.
“It’s extremely difficult—sometimes, I can barely get out of bed. I have three children, nine-year-old twins and a 17-year-old back home, and I want to live to see them grow up. My brother used to take me to my appointments, but now I’m alone. My brother is a good man, not a criminal in Venezuela or here—he came only with the hope of donating his kidney to me. I thought I was alone, but seeing the support of this community has moved me deeply.”
Meinecke said that he had been in touch with Gonzalez’s ICE officer over the past few weeks and submitted a request for release on temporary humanitarian parole on March 25.
“He needs to show that his release is either in the public interest or is necessary for like, urgent humanitarian factors. And in his case, we argue both,” Meinecke said. “You know, obviously, the medical conditions kind of speak to both. They’re both urgent humanitarian factors by now, but organ donation is in the public interest as well.”
Meinecke explained that Pacheco was admitted into the U.S. from Venezuela in 2023 and was permitted to apply for asylum, so he has a work permit while his asylum application is pending. His wife and three children remain in Venezuela. But soon after he arrived in the U.S., he suffered from stomach pain and was diagnosed with “end-stage kidney failure,” Meinecke said.
“He went to the hospital with severe abdominal pain, which is when he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure,” Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at the Resurrection Project, told ABC News on Wednesday. “At the time, he was told he had 2 percent functioning of his kidneys and would need dialysis consistently, multiple times a week to survive, and really, his best chance to live a full, healthy life would be a kidney transplant.”
Since his diagnosis in 2023, Pacheco’s condition has deteriorated, Siegel said.
“[Alfredo] currently receives [dialysis] three times a week, from 4 am to 8 am, and his brother Jose came here to help care for him, and with the intention of being able to donate his kidney and save Alfredo’s life,” Siegel said. “And so for the last year, Jose has essentially been a full-time caretaker for Alfredo, helping with cooking, cleaning, etc, and with the intent to donate his kidney.”
But unlike Pacheco, when Gonzalez arrived to the U.S. from Venezuela “primarily to assist” his brother, he failed to pass the credible fear screening, which did not allow him to apply for asylum like Pacheco had done, according to Meinecke, so he was detained by ICE for several months and then he was granted temporary supervised release but still faced a pending removal order. During his time on supervised release, Gonzalez routinely checked in with his ICE officer, provided his address and wore an ankle monitor, Meinecke said.
Siegel said that Gonzalez was detained while the brothers were leaving their home to go to Pacheco’s kidney dialysis appointment.
“It was shocking and devastating,” she said. “They had been living life together, and an incredibly difficult life where one of the brothers was undergoing incredible medical distress and suffering.”
“They were taking care of one another and surviving for a year together,” she added. “And during that time, clearly, you know, caring deeply for one another, loving each other as family members do. Jose [Gregorio] had no contact with police, the criminal legal system, and then one morning, with, you know, completely unexpected, ICE came to their home.”
Gonzalez’s expected release comes after ICE denied on Monday a stay of removal request submitted by his attorneys and then the case was elevated to an ICE Chicago Field Supervisor, according to The Resurrection Project.
“This is literally a matter of life and death,” said Erendira Rendón, vice president of Immigrant Justice at The Resurrection Project. “ICE has the discretionary authority to release Mr. Gonzalez on humanitarian grounds. Every day he remains detained is another day his brother’s life hangs in the balance.”
Emergency units respond to airplane wreckage in the Potomac River near Ronald Reagan Washington Airport on January 30, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. An American Airlines flight from Wichita, Kansas collided with a helicopter while approaching Ronald Reagan National Airport. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Figure skaters and coaches returning from the recent U.S. national championships were aboard the American Airlines flight that collided with a Black Hawk helicopter near Reagan National Airport on Wednesday, officials said.
No survivors were expected in the crash, officials said Thursday. There were 64 people aboard the plane and three in the helicopter, according to officials.
Fourteen figure skaters were among those on the flight, Doug Zeghibe, the CEO and executive director for the Skating Club of Boston, said he was told.
Zeghibe said six victims were from the Skating Club of Boston, including two coaches, two teenage athletes and two moms of athletes.
He identified the skaters from the Skating Club of Boston as Jinna Ha and Spencer Lane. Ha’s mother, Jin Han, and Lane’s mother, Christine Lane, were also on board. Zeghibe also identified the two coaches as Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov. The two were 1994 World Pair Champions who joined the club in 2017, Zeghibe said.
“Six is a horrific number for us but we’re fortunate and grateful it wasn’t more than six,” Zeghibe said. “This will have long reaching impacts for our skating community.”
Zeghibe emphasized how tight-knit the skating community is and that “everyone is like family.”
“We are devastated and completely at a loss for words,” Zeghibe said.
The U.S. Figure Skating organization confirmed that “several members” of the skating community were aboard American Airlines Flight 5342 which took off from Wichita, Kansas, and crashed approaching Reagan National Airport after colliding with a helicopter shortly before 9 p.m.
“These athletes, coaches, and family members were returning home from the National Development Camp held in conjunction with the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas,” the organization said.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
There were 60 passengers and four crew members aboard the jet and three personnel aboard the Army helicopter, which officials said was on a training flight at the time of the crash.
Officials have not publicly confirmed the number of fatalities in the crash.
The Mayor of Wichita, Lily Wu, offered her condolences during a press conference, becoming emotional when stating there are not any survivors.
“Our hearts are heavy as a city,” Wu said. “Our hearts are heavy as a city council, and we are here to provide the support needed for our community.”
At an early Thursday morning news conference, officials said they were continuing search-and-rescue operations in the icy Potomac River but did not say whether anyone had been pulled from the water alive, or confirm any deaths.
Meanwhile, Russian media reported that two Russian figure skaters were on board the American Airlines flight, and the presidential spokesman expressed condolences to the families and friends of those killed in the plane crash.
“There were other of our fellow citizens there. Bad news from Washington today,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday morning.
Earlier, several Russian state media outlets reported that the 1994 world figure skating champions in pairs, Evgenia Shishkova and Vadim Naumov, were on board the plane, though U.S. authorities have not confirmed these reports.
Oklahoma City figure skating coach Jackie Brenner was in Wichita with the skaters, coaches and officials who were aboard the flight.
“I was there on Sunday at a coaching workshop, which was the first day of U.S. figure skating development camp as they were coming into their two days of training,” Brenner said. “Huge excitement in the arena and lobby of all these families.”
The U.S. Figure Skating community has been struck by tragedy in a plane crash before. In February 1961, an entire U.S. figure skating team died in a plane crash on Feb. 15, 1961. The plane, Sabena Flight 548, was carrying the team to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Along with the team, 16 family members, coaches and friends of the skaters died in the crash.
(NEW YORK) — A Cornell University graduate student filed a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s executive orders aimed at going after universities and “foreign national” protesters, then he was asked to surrender to ICE.
Momodou Taal, a Ph.D. student in Africana Studies at Cornell University, filed the suit on Saturday hoping to prevent the administration from targeting him and others who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests. An attorney for Taal said he had been targeted by some of the same groups that had advocated for Mahmoud Khalil’s arrest and that his client feared he could be next.
Taal is a citizen of the U.K. and Gambia and is in the United States on a student visa.
According to court records, Taal was temporarily suspended from Cornell in April and September of 2024 for his participation in student protests. Instead of imposing sanctions that could have affected his immigration status, the university chose to allow Taal to continue studying remotely until Spring 2025 when his full access to the campus would be restored, his lawyers said.
In an X post on Wednesday, Taal said law enforcement agents “from an unidentified agency” had been seen parked outside his home in Ithaca, New York.
“Trump is attempting to detain me to prevent me from having my day in court,” he wrote.
On Thursday, attorney Eric Lee filed an affidavit, stating, “It appears the government is attempting to detain Mr. Taal imminently.” Witnesses had seen an undercover law enforcement official parked outside Taal’s home, his attorney said. The man allegedly showed the witnesses a badge “indicating he is a member of law enforcement.”
Taal’s attorneys petitioned for a temporary restraining order seeking to prevent his arrest.
However, on Friday, his attorneys said they received an e-mail from a Justice Department lawyer asking Taal to turn himself in to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“ICE invites Mr. Taal and his counsel to appear in-person at the HSI Office in Syracuse at a mutually agreeable time for personal service of the NTA and for Mr. Taal to surrender to ICE custody. Accordingly, if you are interested in proposing such a date and time, we will promptly forward it to ICE for consideration,” the email read.
On Friday, Lee posted on X and condemned the Trump administration’s move.
“The Trump administration responded to Momodou Taal’s lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the executive orders by sending agents to stake out his house, he said. When we asked the Court to enjoin the administration from detaining Mr. Taal as the case progresses, the administration responded by ordering him to surrender to ICE. This does not happen in a democracy.”
