‘Scrubs’ co-EP Eric Weinberg’s rape criminal case moves closer to trial

Facing multiple criminal charges of rape, former Scrubs co-executive producer Eric Weinberg took a step closer to a trial today.

In a sometimes heated session Thursday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge scheduled a preliminary hearing for Weinberg for April 25.

Denied bail and held at DTLA Twin Towers Correctional Facility since October 25, a time Californication EP faces up to 100 years in state prison if convicted.

today at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center by Judge Kerry L. Appearing in person in White’s court in an orange jumpsuit and mask, Weinberg faces six felony counts of sexual assault by force. He is charged with four counts of oral sex, three counts of forcible rape, two counts of sexual battery by restraint and one count of assault with force likely to cause great bodily injury, attempted sexual penetration by force and false imprisonment by violence.

Weinberg, who was first arrested by Los Angeles police last summer in connection with more than a dozen alleged rapes that occurred between 2012 and 2019, was initially released on a $3.2 million surety bond. Later raised to $5 million, that bail was revoked upon his 2022 arrest, and Weinberg was taken into custody just before Halloween last year after pleading not guilty to his arraignment.

Since Weinberg’s arrest last July, the LAPD and the L.A. County District Attorney’s office said they received more than 70 tips and stories from women who claimed they were also dragged to the TV vet’s Los Feliz home and raped with the promise of taking pictures. . A career in the entertainment industry.

In addition to the civil lawsuit filed by two alleged victims against Weinberg in early November, 13 other lawsuits alleging sexual assault were filed last month. The plaintiffs ranged in age from 18 to mid-30s at the time of the attacks, with the new lawsuits detailing alleged assaults that took place from 1998 to 2017.

While involving many of the same alleged victims, those cases are distinct from criminal cases Civil cases may be stayed while criminal cases proceed, as often happens in such situations.

After Thursday’s delay, when several more cases were called before the busy LASC judge, today’s hearing went into a tailspin as the prosecutor was suddenly unavailable. While Weinberg chatted with defense attorney Phillip Cohen and sheriff’s deputies, court officials today had the deputy DA handle things and Judge White went to work on other matters.

After that, the judge took a short break and Weinberg’s hearing began just before 11 AM PT. Deputy DA May Martinez, who is speaking on the Weinberg case, was not in court today because Harvey Weinstein’s trial continues on the 9th.^m Floor of the Criminal Justice Center.

“The defendant engaged in a pattern of violence for at least six years,” Judge Victoria B. Wilson said in an October objection filed by defense attorney Cohen and other members of Weinberg’s legal team.

The LASC judge called Weinberg a potential “serial rapist” and characterized his decades of heinous behavior as “brazen and predatory.” Weinberg targeted women in their 20s and 30s “at grocery stores, coffee shops and other public places,” according to the LAPD. “He’s a danger to society,” Deputy DA Martinez said of Weinberg at the Oct. 25 hearing. “He is a danger to all women.”

Weinberg was previously arrested for sexual assault in 2014, but the DA’s office chose not to press charges at the time — which is sure to come up in both the current criminal and civil cases.