Harvey Weinstein cases to be consolidated into single trial, will likely occur in spring
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(NEW YORK) — A Manhattan judge on Wednesday granted a motion by prosecutors to combine Harvey Weinstein’s retrial on sex crimes charges with his trial on a new charge of forcing oral sex on a woman in 2006.
Prosecutors convinced Judge Curtis Farber to consolidate the cases into a single trial in part by arguing separate trials would be “extraordinarily inefficient.”
Farber did not set a new trial date but suggested it would likely occur in the spring, displeasing the defense, which had hoped for a quicker resolution.
Weinstein is next due in court Jan. 29.
He appeared in court in a wheelchair Wednesday following his recent bone marrow cancer diagnosis.
Weinstein is currently being held in prison on Rikers Island in New York, where he has experienced a slew of health issues amid his ongoing sexual assault trials.
He has denied all claims of sexual misconduct, saying his encounters were consensual.
He pleaded not guilty to the new charge, based on the 2006 incident, last month.
“Mr. Weinstein has been very consistent from the time of his investigation. He never forced himself on anybody,” his attorney, Arthur Aidala, told reporters outside the courthouse following the arraignment on Sept. 19.
He is also charged in a previous New York State Supreme Court indictment with criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said.
(GREEN LAKE, Wis.) — A husband and father of three who vanished at a Wisconsin lake this summer may have faked his own death and fled to Eastern Europe, authorities said, and the sheriff is now urging the missing man to come forward.
“Our most important thing, for us, is to know that you’re safe,” Green Lake County Sheriff Mark Podoll said in his message to Ryan Borgwardt. “We can talk through all this and we can work things out.”
The case began on the morning of Aug. 12, when authorities learned Borgwardt, 45, hadn’t returned home and was last known to be on Green Lake, according to the Green Lake County Sheriff’s Office.
Borgwardt last texted his wife on the night of Aug. 11, saying he was turning his kayak around and heading to shore soon, Podoll said.
Officials discovered Borgwardt’s overturned kayak and life jacket in the lake, authorities said, and they later found his fishing rod and tackle box.
Responders believed the missing dad drowned and they scoured the lake using divers, drones, sonar and cadaver K-9s, officials said.
“The search continued for about 54 days, with no sign of Ryan,” the sheriff said during a news conference on Friday. “Near daily drone searches were completed. And Bruce’s Legacy [a volunteer search organization] methodically searched approximately 1,500 acres. … Keith Cormican, [who leads] Bruce’s Legacy, sifted through hours and hours of sonar data and images.”
“Keith’s expertise and equipment led us to believe either something very odd occurred and Ryan was outside the area that had been searched, or something else had occurred,” the sheriff said.
The case took a turn in October when investigators discovered Borgwardt’s name had been checked by law enforcement in Canada on Aug. 13, the sheriff said.
Authorities also learned Borgwardt had been communicating with a woman from Uzbekistan, the sheriff said.
Other behavior included clearing his browsers the day he disappeared, inquiries about moving funds to foreign banks, getting a new life insurance policy, obtaining a new passport and replacing his laptop hard drive, the sheriff said.
“I was totally shocked,” Podoll told ABC News on Monday. “It was just unbelievable that we would have a case like this where some party actually staged his death.”
Authorities have stopped searching the lake.
“As far as we know, he’s someplace in Eastern Europe,” the sheriff told ABC News.
Investigators are “looking into what charges could be filed,” Podoll said, adding, “that’s a work in progress.”
Authorities hope to pursue restitution for the expenses of the search, the sheriff’s office said.
“He wasted a lot of my time and it cost me a lot of money,” Cormican of Bruce’s Legacy said.
Podoll said it’s not clear if Borgwardt was given help, and he urged anyone with information to come forward.
Podoll praised Borgwardt’s wife, whom he said was not involved, calling her “a very, very strong lady.”
“I was there when the sheriff broke the news to the whole family. And it was pretty, pretty heart-wrenching to see,” Cormican told ABC News. “I feel horrible for the family. They’re the ones that are going to really struggle.”
ABC News’ Karolina Rivas contributed to this report.
(SEATTLE) — Two people were killed by falling trees in Washington state as a powerful storm hammered the Pacific Northwest.
In Bellevue, a tree fell into a home, hitting and killing a woman while she was in the shower Tuesday night, Bellevue fire officials said.
In Lynwood, a woman in her 50s was killed when a tree fell on a homeless encampment, officials said.
Hundreds of thousands of people lost power in the storm, which snapped power lines and caused significant damage. As of Wednesday evening, about 320,000 customers were still without power, according to Puget Sound Energy CEO Mary Kipp.
“We haven’t had a storm like this since January of 2012,” Kipp said in in a video on X.
Crews were prioritizing restoring power to hospitals and schools, and Kipp estimated power wouldn’t be back for all customers “for at least a few days.”
Another roughly 23,000 customers of Seattle City Light were still without power as of Wednesday evening, according to a post from the utility on social media platform X.
The storm exploded into a bomb cyclone off the coast, near Vancouver Island, Canada, where winds gusted near 101 mph.
A bomb cyclone means the pressure in the center of the storm drops 24 millibars within 24 hours.
The storm is bringing dangerous wind and rain to the West Coast.
Two to 4 inches of rain has been recorded so far in western Washington, western Oregon and northwestern California.
The rain started in northwestern California on Tuesday afternoon and it isn’t expected to stop until Friday morning. Twelve to 18 inches of rainfall is expected by the end of the week.
A high risk for excessive rainfall has been issued. The rain will be the most dangerous on Thursday.
Flash flooding, rockslides and landslides are all likely.
In the mountains of Northern California, blizzard conditions will be possible as wind gusts reach 50 to 70 mph. One to 4 feet of snow is possible at higher elevations. One foot of snow has already hit the mountains west of Redding, California.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A first-of-its-kind survey has found that 3.3% of U.S. high school students identified as transgender in 2023, with another 2.2% identified as questioning.
The first nationally representative survey from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also highlights the multiple health disparities faced by transgender students who may experience gender dysphoria, stigma, discrimination, social marginalization or violence because they do not conform to social expectations of gender, the CDC reports.
These stressors increase the likelihood transgender youth and those who are questioning may experience mental health challenges, leading to disparities in health and well-being, according to the health agency.
Here are some of the findings:
More than a quarter (26%) of transgender and questioning students attempted suicide in the past year, compared to 5% of cisgender male and 11% of cisgender female students. The CDC urged schools to “create safer and more supportive environments for transgender and questioning students” to address these disparities, including inclusive activities, mental health and other health service referrals, and implementing policies that are LGBTQ-inclusive.
About 7 in 10 questioning students (69%) and transgender students (72%) experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, which the CDC states is a marker of depressive symptoms.
The CDC estimates 40% of transgender and questioning students have experienced bullying at school. About a quarter of transgender students (25.3%) and more than a quarter of questioning students (26.4%) skipped school because they felt unsafe, compared with 8.5% of cisgender male students.
Trans students were more likely to experience unstable housing in the last month than cisgender students. The CDC found 10.7% of trans students and 10% of questioning students said they experienced unstable housing, compared to 2.1% of cisgender males and 1.8% of cisgender females.
The CDC noted this disparity is likely caused of discrimination, such as family rejection.
Additionally, “transgender students might experience discrimination, harassment, and assault among foster, shelter, and other social service providers that make this population less likely to be sheltered when experiencing unstable housing, compounding their vulnerability to experiences of violence, poor mental health, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors,” the report states.
The Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System regularly surveys more than 20,000 high school students in both public and private schools nationwide to monitor adolescent behavior over time to identify key issues and health needs.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
