NYC NOW - May 20, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Starting Wednesday, migrants who reach a limit of 30- or 60-day stays can be evicted, with limited opportunities to remain depending on their age. In other news, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing questions after over 2,000 families were unable to secure a seat in the city’s 3K program this fall. Meanwhile, New York state lawmakers are proposing a bill that would require large public venues to have EpiPens on hand for treating life-threatening allergic emergencies. Plus, disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein’s recently overturned conviction in New York could pave the way for a new state law. WNYC’s Sean Carlson speaks with reporters Samantha Max and Jon Campbell to learn more.

Welcome to NYC Now, your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Sean Carlson. New York City is implementing stricter rules this week for adult migrants living in shelters. Starting Wednesday, migrants who reach a limit of 30 or 60-day stays depending on their age can be evicted with limited opportunities to remain. Power Malu leads a nonprofit that helps migrants. He says the new rules are unclear. This happens all the time with the city. They implement these policies and they don't even know.

what they're talking about or how it's going to be rolled out. People don't have that time and that luxury to wait to see what you're rolling out. Adult migrants who can show extenuating circumstances may be allowed to remain. City Hall says starting May 27th, all adult migrants who enter the shelter system will be subject to the new rules. New York City Mayor Eric Adams is facing questions after over 2,000 families were unable to secure a seat this fall for their child in the city's early childhood program for three-year-olds. In an interview with New York One on Monday, Adams insisted the program can accommodate anyone who applied.

Nothing went wrong here. I was clear from day one. I'm going to continue to say, and I want to be very clear. Every child that wants a seat is going to have a seat. But the mayor didn't address whether some of the slots may be too far away from families. Adams has elected not to expand the city's 3K program, saying there were thousands of unfilled slots. City officials say only 6% of the families that apply did not get an offer. New York state lawmakers are proposing a bill that would require large public venues to have epipens on hand to treat life-threatening allergic emergencies. Epipens are epinephrine auto-injectors. Brooklynite and polyprepstudent Lucia Zaremba began advocating for EpiPen accessibility

after watching her mom use one to save her younger brother's life. He had an allergic reaction, and I saw him collapse to the floor. He turned blue, and he looked at my mom and said something I'll never forget. He said, I don't want to die. The bill would mandate that venues have at least one person who is trained in EpiPenews. It's currently making its way through the state Senate. Up next, the recently overturned conviction of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein might make way for a new state law. We'll love that story after the break.

A wave of sexual assault allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein has sparked an international reckoning for harassment and abuse in the workplace. Now Weinstein's recently overturned conviction in New York could make way for a new state law. I recently spoke with WNYC politics reporter John Campbell and public safety reporter Samantha Max to learn more about this latest legislative push. Sam, can you first quickly catch us up on the status of Weinstein's criminal case in New York? Yes. So last month, New York's highest court actually overturned his conviction for the case that happened here in New York City. That's in part because three women testified whose accusations actually were not part of the indictment against him in that case. Judges say that violated Weinstein's rights.

You're technically not supposed to present evidence that's not directly related to the case except certain exceptions. judges say prosecutors didn't cross that threshold in this case, and they have actually ordered a new trial for Weinstein. I spoke with Tarley Wolfe. She is one of those women who testified at trial, and she says she was really not prepared for this outcome. She didn't understand why the Court of Appeals was going against the decision that the trial judge had already made to allow her and to other women to take the stand. There was a conversation before as to whether or not we would be allowed and we were admitted. And you kind of think, okay, we covered that already. We're good. We're clear.

So now Weinstein is on Rikers Island, awaiting a new trial. He also faces a sentence in California for a separate case that happened there. And I should note that he has denied any wrongdoing. John, you spoke with the sponsor of the bill. What does she hope it'll achieve? Yeah, that's right, Sean. I spoke to Amy Pollan. And she's a Democratic Assembly member from Westchester County.

And we talked during a busy, noisy day at the state capital. And she first introduced this bill a couple years ago when it became clear that Weinstein's attorney were kind of raising this issue on appeal. And it would change state law to make clear that judges can admit evidence of a defendant's past sexual offenses. It would also let judges block that evidence if it would be too present. prejudicial for the case. Advocates for sexual assault survivors, they're pushing for this bill in some form, but the assembly member says it's still going to take some convincing. Yes, I expect obstacles. Bills that support women are not always the easiest bills to get done. There's a group of people, sometimes, most often men, but also sometimes women, who do not support women. That said, there's still some significant pushback from public defenders and other defense attorneys who are often aligned with progressives in the legislature. Interesting. Sam, let's get into the defense attorney's concerns.

They've warned about unintended consequences. What are they worried about? So they say that it undermines this basic idea in criminal law that when you're accused of a crime, you're only supposed to be answering to evidence that actually is related to the crime. hand. Otherwise, you know, if you're presenting evidence that tries to convince the jury of someone's guilt by essentially just saying that they're a bad person or that they're likely to commit a crime, that can kind of muddy the waters. The legal aid society put out a statement related to this bill saying that it's just overly broad. And I also spoke with Catherine Miller. She leads Cardozo Law's criminal defense clinic. And she says it would make it too easy to introduce out evidence and could expose defendants to unfair bias from jurors.

She says, you know, there are already measures in place that allow some types of evidence to be let in, but with guardrails. And she says that you should not draft legislation based on a case that's so unusual. Obviously, Harvey Weinstein is not a typical criminal defendant. And Weinstein's publicist, Judah Engelmeyer, actually made a similar point to me. He told me that you should not be haphazardly writing a law that could be trying to address one issue but potentially address all kinds of other people down the line. John, let's talk about the timeline here.

There are only a few weeks left in the legislative session. So what are the chances that this could pass in time? Sean, I'd say there's a chance. It happens by them, but it's far from a done deal at this point. The bill, it got a boost last week when Senator Mike Giannarius signed on to sponsor it. He's a Queen's Democrat. and more importantly, he's the Senate deputy leader. That's the number two position in the Senate.

And Governor Hockel says she wants to tackle the issue too, but she's working with her legal team to try to figure out what would actually hold up in court. And like Sam said, defense attorneys are raising the alarm. They're often aligned with Democrats who control the legislature. And if they want to run out the clock on the legislative session, they've only got to do it for a few weeks. The legislative session is scheduled to end June. six, so that's certainly a possibility.

That's WNYC politics reporter John Campbell, along with our public safety reporter Samantha Max. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNIC. Catch us every weekday, three times a day. I'm Sean Carlson. We'll be back tomorrow.