Harvey Weinstein rushed to hospital from prison for emergency heart surgery
The disgraced film mogul is currently awaiting a retrial after his 2020 rape conviction was overturned by a New York court of appeals.
Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul currently serving time for a sexual assault conviction while awaiting retrial on several additional charges, has been rushed from Rikers Island jail to Bellevue Hospital for an emergency surgery.
Weinstein, 72, was brought to the hospital on Sunday night and has since undergone a procedure and surgery on his heart, representatives Craig Rothfeld and Juda Engelmayer confirmed to Entertainment Weekly.
“As we have extensively stated before, Mr. Weinstein suffers a plethora of significant health issues that need ongoing treatment,” they said in a statement. “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.”
In July, Weinstein was temporarily hospitalized for a myriad of health conditions, including testing positive for COVID-19 and contracting double pneumonia.
Related: Mira Sorvino is 'horrified' and 'gutsick' that Harvey Weinstein's NY rape conviction was overturned
This latest emergency comes days before Weinstein was next due in court, where prosecutors have been presenting evidence to a grand jury regarding an alleged sexual assault that occurred sometime in a four-month time period between late 2005 and mid-2006 in a lower Manhattan residential building.
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Weinstein was previously sentenced to 23 years in prison after he was convicted of a criminal sex act in the first degree and rape in the third degree following a highly-publicized trial that marked a watershed moment in the #MeToo movement. However, in April of this year, a New York court of appeals overturned the disgraced producer’s 2020 rape conviction and ordered a retrial.
In a 4-3 decision, the court found that the trial’s judge, Justice James M. Burke, made a critical error by allowing the 2020 jury to hear from Molineux witnesses — a collection of women who levied sexual assault allegations against Weinstein that he had not been charged with committing — to highlight a history of bad acts.
Related: Ashley Judd slams 'institutional betrayal' after Harvey Weinstein's rape conviction is overturned
Although Weinstein's New York conviction has been overturned, the media mogul has remained in prison, as he was sentenced to 16 years in California last year after he was found guilty of raping and sexually assaulting a woman in 2013. Weinstein has denied any wrongdoing and has said his sexual encounters with women were consensual.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.