Harvey Weinstein is in recovery following emergency heart surgery
Harvey Weinstein was “rushed” on Sunday night to Bellevue Hospital in New York, where he underwent a procedure as well as heart surgery on Monday, his representatives said.
The former Hollywood movie mogul — who is serving a 16-year prison sentence in his California rape case and is in custody in New York while he awaits retrial on rape charges there — was taken to the hospital “due to several medical issues,” according to his publicist Juda Engelmayer and prison consultant Craig Rothfeld.
“We can confirm that Mr. Weinstein had a procedure and surgery on his heart today. He is out of surgery and in recovery,” Rothfeld said Monday in a statement to The Times. “As we have extensively stated before, Mr. Weinstein suffers a plethora of significant health issues that need ongoing treatment. We are grateful to the executive team at the New York City Department of Correction and Rikers Island for acting swiftly in taking him to Bellevue Hospital.”
Engelmayer declined to share further details about Weinstein’s medical procedure.
Harvey Weinstein was admitted to Bellevue Hospital in New York to treat pneumonia in both lungs, COVID-19 and a slew of other ailments, his publicist said.
In July, the 72-year-old was taken to the medical facility to undergo treatment for COVID-19, double pneumonia and other health conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis and fluid in his heart and lungs.
The “Shakespeare in Love” and “Pulp Fiction” producer was previously admitted to Bellevue in late April after a New York appeals court overturned his 2020 rape conviction.
In May, prosecutors asked for a retrial during a hearing at a Manhattan courthouse. Weinstein had previously appeared in court using a walker but attended the May preliminary hearing in a wheelchair pushed by a court officer.
Allegations made about the disgraced studio boss in New Yorker and New York Times investigations sparked the 2017 #MeToo movement, with Weinstein becoming one of the most notorious men to be legally tasked in its wake. Although he has denied that he raped or sexually assaulted anyone, he was initially sentenced in 2020 to 23 years in prison in New York after allegedly assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haley and once-aspiring actor Jessica Mann. The state appellate court overturned the verdict last spring, determining that the judge who presided over Weinstein’s 2020 trial prejudiced his case by allowing four women who accused Weinstein of assault to serve as witnesses despite their allegations not being part of the case.
The appeals court ruled that the trial judge also erred in ruling that prosecutors could cross-examine Weinstein about uncharged and decades-old allegations if he decided to testify.
Harvey Weinstein accusers and others in Hollywood have condemned a New York appeals court’s decision to reverse the disgraced producer’s rape conviction.
Last week, prosecutors disclosed that they have begun taking steps to potentially charge Weinstein with up to three additional sexual assaults, the Associated Press reported. Prosecutors said they have started presenting evidence to a grand jury of up to three previously uncharged allegations against the embattled mogul — two sexual assaults in the mid-2000s and another sexual assault in 2016.
A vote on a potential new indictment is expected soon, AP said. Weinstein’s retrial is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12 and he was initially due back in court for a pretrial hearing Sept. 12, according to jail records.
Also last week, the U.K.’s Crown Prosecution Service said it was dropping two charges of indecent assault against Weinstein because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.’’ In 2022, he was charged with two counts of indecent assault against a woman in London for alleged offenses from 1996, the BBC said.
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