Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced former movie mogul, was moved to Rikers Island prison on Monday after a report that he was being kept in a private room at Bellevue Hospital Intensive Care Unit in New York City.
The room had its own phone, private bathroom and a television, The City reported. Weinstein had spent most of his day watching CNN and other TV programs. In addition, he spoke in person or on the phone to Arthur Aidala, the attorney handling his appeal.
Weinstein, 72, was moved to the Manhattan public hospital hours after he was brought back to Rikers Island on April 27 after an appeals court threw out his 2020 rape conviction.
He was transferred to the hospital after complaints of chest pain, The City said. It attributed the information to a jail insider. He has since been diagnosed with pneumonia.
Weinstein was moved back to Rikers after The City report "set off" city corrections and "within an hour or two of that being printed it started them contemplating how to move him and when to move him quickly," a source told the New York Post.
"He's a sick man," Weinstein attorney Donna Rotunno said. "Harvey has multiple health issues and he's never gotten the level of care that he received prior to going into custody."
On April 25, New York's highest court overturned Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced Weinstein with "egregious" improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that were not part of the case, according to The Associated Press.
Officials from the Correctional Health Services, which directs medical care for inmates, did not respond to a request from The City for a comment.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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