New York, US, Dec 2 (EFE).- Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, who is awaiting a retrial on sexual assault charges, was hospitalized in New York City on Monday, his lawyer said.
Weinstein was transferred from the Rikers Island jail complex on the city’s East River to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan because of an “alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention,” his attorney, Imran Ansari, said in a statement.
In September, Weinstein underwent emergency heart surgery at the same hospital and was previously itted in July for Covid-19 and pneumonia.
Last week, the producer behind Pulp Fiction, The Lord of the Rings and Silver Linings Playbook announced that he was suing the city and its Department of Correction for failing to provide adequate medical care.
“His deprivation of care is not only medical malpractice, but a violation of his constitutional rights,” his lawyer said Monday, adding that his client had been “suffering from a lack of adequate medical care and enduring deplorable and inhumane conditions.”
Rikers Island came under increased scrutiny on Wednesday when a federal judge found New York City in contempt of court orders regarding security, use of force, and the safety of young detainees among other issues, saying the city had placed incarcerated people in “unconstitutional danger.”
A legendary figure in modern Hollywood for his power at the top of the production company Miramax, the producer, 72, was convicted in 2020 in two separate cases of rape and sexual assault in courts in New York and Los Angeles that were seen as the culmination and symbol of the #MeToo wave of sexual abuse complaints.
In April, a New York judge overturned his 23-year sentence in that jurisdiction, arguing that testimony from women whose claims against Weinstein were not part of the case was improperly allowed during the trial, after which a new trial was ordered to be held in 2025.
Weinstein continued to serve the California sentence from Rikers.
According to legal documents, some of Weinstein’s medical conditions include leukemia, diabetes, coronary artery disease, obstructive sleep apnea, obesity, and high blood pressure. EFE
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