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Disgraced movie mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has been hospitalized with Covid-19 and pneumonia in both lungs just days after he appeared at a court hearing in New York over his retrial on rape and sexual assault charges.
The Hollywood movie producer was transferred from the notorious Rikers Island jail complex in New York to a secure ward at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan on Wednesday.
“Mr Weinstein tested positive for COVID and contracted double pneumonia in his lungs,” his publicist Juda Engelmayer said in a statement on Thursday.
Weinstein was first transferred to the hospital’s prison ward late on Wednesday night, Engelmayer told CNN, before being sent to the Manhattan hospital.
There, Weinstein is also being treated for a “myriad of health conditions” including diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, and fluid on his heart and lungs, his publicist said.
“We continue to express our gratitude to the officers, doctors and nurses in the city’s corrections and public hospital systems who saw to it that Mr. Weinstein was immediately transferred to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward,” he added.
This marks Weinstein’s second stint at the hospital since he was returned to Rikers Island in April for legal proceedings related to his rape case.
That month, a New York appeals court vacated his rape conviction in the state after finding the trial judge made “egregious errors” by allowing prosecutors to call witnesses whose allegations were not related to the charges at hand.
Weinstein was moved from Mohawk Correction Facility, located approximately 35 miles from Syracuse in upstate New York, to Rikers Island after his 23-year prison sentence was vacated.
Days later, his attorney said he had been taken to Bellevue hospital, describing him as “somewhat of a train wreck health wise”.
Weinstein was prevoiusly hospitalized in March 2020 when he contracted Covid-19 while being held in Wende Correctional Facility in Buffalo, New York – one month after he was jailed.
The Weinstein Company co-founder was found guilty in February 2020 of third-degree rape and a first-degree criminal sexual act and was handed a 23-year sentence.
The sentencing marked a major chapter in the #MeToo movement after numerous sexual abuse allegations had come to light against the film producer since October 2017.
While that conviction was overturned this year, Weinstein’s Los Angeles conviction still stands.
There, he was convicted of rape and sexual assault and jailed for 16 years.
Prosecutors in New York are also retrying the case against him.
Last Friday, he appeared for a hearing at Manhattan Criminal Court where a retrial date was set for November 12 after Weinstein’s attorneys said they wanted to move as soon as possible.
More alleged victims have come forward after the New York conviction was overturned.
On July 9, prosecutors accused Weinstein of raping more women than those who were part of his earlier prosecution.
“We believe the defendant forcibly raped and sexually abused women in Manhattan that fall within the statute of limitations,” Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg said.
“There were women in 2020 who were not ready to proceed with the legal process. They are now ready.”
Prosecutors told the judge, Curtis Farber, that they’re still reviewing those claims, and plan to present the story of at least one of the new alleged victims to a grand jury, ABC News reported.
