Disgraced Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was rushed to hospital Saturday night for a battery of tests on his return to New York after the city’s highest court overturned his 2020 conviction on sex crime charges.
The 4-3 decision reversed one of the defining cases of the #MeToo movement but Weinstein will remain jailed on a separate 16-year rape sentence handed down in California, as Breitbart News reported.
“The NYC Department of Corrections determined that Mr Weinstein needed immediate medical attention,” his lawyer Arthur L Aidala told AFP in a statement.
“A myriad of tests are being performed on Harvey and he is being kept for observation.”
Police confirmed the Oscar winner had been taken to New York’s Bellevue Hospital.
Weinstein, 72, was convicted in a New York court in 2020 of the rape and sexual assault of ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013, and of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006.
He was later sentenced to 23 years in prison.
Attorney Arthur Aidala said in a statement issued to media outlets he was not treated well at his latest trial, adding “they refused to give him even a sip of water, no food, no bathroom break. He’s a 72-year-old sickly man.”
Juda Engelmayer, a spokesperson for Weinstein, said “we’re cautiously excited” by the court’s decision to overturn the ruling.
“He still has a long road ahead of him because of the Los Angeles case. We are studying the ramifications of the appeal right now,” Engelmayer said.
