Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was taken to a prison ward inside Bellevue Hospital in New York on Saturday for testing, days after an appeals court in the city overturned his 2020 rape conviction.
On Saturday, Weinstein’s publicist, Juda Engelmayer, and his lawyer, Arthur Aidala, both confirmed that Weinstein, 72, was transferred from the Rikers Island jail complex to the Manhattan hospital.
Engelmayer said that Weinstein had been in custody at a regional medical unit that was part of a correctional facility in Upstate New York. When he was transferred to New York City, Engelmayer said, the trip “triggered some of [Weinstein’s] health issues that warranted closer monitoring.” The publicist added that Weinstein’s transfer to Bellevue “is consistent with his prior custody.”
Frank Dwyer, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Correction, also confirmed Weinstein “remains in custody at Bellevue Hospital.”
Weinstein, who has faced health problems over the years, had been serving a 23-year sentence at a correctional facility in Upstate New York and was transferred to a medical ward at Rikers following Thursday’s appeals court decision. Weinstein was hospitalized in early 2020 for heart and blood pressure issues, around the time of his sentencing in New York.
Weinstein is due to be in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday.
Weinstein was originally sentenced to 23 years in prison in the New York trial. He was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a former production assistant, Mimi Haleyi, at his apartment in 2006; and of rape in the third degree for an attack on aspiring actress Jessica Mann at a hotel in 2013. The Manhattan district attorney’s office has pledged to “do everything in our power” to retry this case.
Even after the appeals court ruling, Weinstein is expected to remain in prison because he also faces a 16-year sentence on a separate case in California, where he was convicted in 2022 of rape, forced oral copulation and sexual misconduct. The New York reversal — a 4-3 decision — nevertheless outraged sexual violence survivors, their advocates and judges who dissented in the appeals court decision.
Shayna Jacobs, Samantha Chery, Mark Berman, Herb Scribner and Janay Kingsberry contributed to this report.
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/04/27/weinstein-hospital-rape-conviction-overturned/