Harvey Weinstein‘s lawyers alleged that the Me Too accused director is receiving substandard medical treatment at Rikers Islan jail complex. The filing said Weinstein has medical conditions like chronic myeloid leukaemia and diabetes but in the jail, he has been kept in poor hygiene without clean clothes.
“When I last visited him, I found him with blood spatter on his prison garb, possibly from IV’s, clothes that had not been washed for weeks, and he had not even been provided clean underwear – hardly sanitary conditions for someone with severe medical conditions,” Weinstein’s attorney, Imran H Ansari, said in a statement, comparing the facility to a “gulag.”
Weinstein has been in city custody since earlier this year after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 rape conviction in the state but Weinstein denied any wrongdoing. In April and July, Weinstein was briefly hospitalized and was treated for diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, Covid-19 and fluid in his heart and lungs.
Weinstein’s lawyers filed a legal claim of $5 million alleging that Weinstein had been returned to jail too early every time — before he had fully recovered.
In the recent court hearings, the jailed movie mogul was seen wheelchair-bound as his health deteriorated in the last few months.
In September, Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a new charge of forcing oral sex on a woman in a Manhattan hotel in spring 2006.
According to the indictment and another court document, the alleged assault – the specific charge is a “criminal sex act” – happened at a lower Manhattan hotel between 29 April and 6 May in 2006.
Weinstein’s film production company went into bankruptcy proceedings after his convictions, setting up a $17 million fund for a sexual misconduct claims fund. The Rikers Island jail is slated to be closed in 2027, but the city has pushed back deadlines to do so.
