July 26, 2024 08:36 am IST
In a recent court hearing, Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers said that his health was poor and demanded that he be transferred from jail to a hospital.
Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein has been transferred from a New York City jail to a hospital for treatment of a variety of health issues, including Covid-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said on Thursday. Weinstein, who is awaiting trial in New York on rape and sexual assault charges, was moved from the city’s Rikers Island jail complex to a locked ward at Bellevue Hospital. (Also Read – Netizens fume after Harvey Weinstein’s conviction overturned: ‘Rich people live by different rules in this country’)
Other conditions for which he was being treated included diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis and fluid in his heart and lungs, according to a statement released by Weinstein’s publicist, and the health information was cited by Weinstein’s prison counsel, Craig Rothfeld.
Publicist Judah Engelmayer said, “We continue to express our gratitude to the officials, doctors, and nurses in the city’s correctional and public hospital systems” who ensured that Mr. Weinstein was promptly transferred to the prison ward at Bellevue Hospital. Weinstein has worked at Bellevue at least once before, when he was first brought to New York City for legal proceedings related to his rape case.
Weinstein, 72, was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2020. The convictions were thrown out by appeals judges who said the jury should not have heard testimony from women who accused the filmmaker of abuse but whose allegations were not part of the case. A retrial has been scheduled for November.
Though his conviction was thrown out, Weinstein remains partially behind bars, as he was sentenced in California to 16 years in prison after pleading guilty to a rape case in Los Angeles in 2022.
Weinstein has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone. In a recent court hearing, Weinstein’s lawyers said that his health was poor and demanded that he be transferred from jail to a hospital.
