Harvey Weinstein petitions court to send him to hospital ahead of rape retrial

Lawyers for disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein have made an urgent plea ahead of his retrial arguing it is a life-threatening matter.

Lawyers for convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein have asked that he be allowed to spend the night in the hospital during his retrial on rape charges, saying the movie mogul’s health was deteriorating rapidly because of “mistreatment” in New York’s Rikers prison.

Court papers state the 73-year-old is suffering from a number of “serious medical conditions,” including leukaemia, diabetes, thyroid problems, obesity, back pain and sciatica.

“He is consistently mistreated for serious infections, medication is given incorrectly, or not at all, he is experiencing unhealthy and atypical weight gain, and he is forced to endure freezing temperatures while not even being provided clean clothing,” said lawyer Imran Ansari.

Weinstein’s legal team claims this justifies transferring him to Bellevue Hospital where he has already been taken in recent months for urgent health care, the lawyer said.

The Rikers Island jail complex stands in New York with the Manhattan skyline in the background. Picture: AP

The newly-filed court case revealed during the Hollywood producer’s last trip to the hospital, he watched CNN for hours on end while being treated for a tongue infection.

Weinstein’s emergency petition, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, seeks a temporary restraining order so he can be “urgently transferred” and receive medical care.

His lawyers once again argued, for at least a third time, that if he’s not allowed to leave Rikers for Bellevue, it could result in “possibly death.”

“My client’s current state of health is critical,” Mr Ansari wrote in an email to a city lawyer.

“The infection of his tongue is getting worse.”

Mr Ansari claims Weinstein is retaining water, gaining weight and had been vomiting on his last court date due to his spate of health issues.

“I am placing you on notice,” reads the email filed in court papers.

“My client is not receiving the treatment he requires.”

Harvey Weinstein arrives at Manhattan Supreme Court for the second day in his rape and sexual assault trial in 2020. Picture: AFP

While at Rikers, the disgraced #MeToo movie maker has “feared for his life” due to the notorious jail’s “negligence and gross mismanagement of Weinstein’s conditions,” claiming he’s caught Covid and pneumonia due to the “freezing cold environments”.

Lawyers also claim Weinstein was not being administered prescribed medication.

Weinstein last stayed at Bellevue in November, but during another stay last spring, he was shipped back to Rikers after reports of VIP treatment were exposed.

Meanwhile, jury selection in Weinstein’s criminal sex trial is unfolding in a Manhattan courtroom – however, not a single peer has been picked to serve so far.

Harvey Weinstein has been accused by more than 80 women of sexual misconduct. Picture: Getty Images

Weinstein’s Manhattan sex crimes retrial will feature a new witness set to accuse the disgraced movie mogul of forcing her into a sick encounter at a Manhattan hotel.

Three accusers in total will confront the jailed Pulp Fiction producer whose 2020 conviction at the height of the #MeToo movement was overturned on appeal at a trial set to last more than a month.

Two of the women, Miriam “Mimi” Haley and Jessica Mann, will take the stand again to describe how they were sexually assaulted by Weinstein, 73, the once-powerful Hollywood kingpin who has been accused by more than 80 women of sexual misconduct.

A third woman, who has not been publicly identified, will testify that Weinstein forced her into oral sex at a Manhattan hotel in 2006, prosecutors say.

The former Miramax boss had been sentenced to 23 years behind bars in the Manhattan case after a dramatic trial where prosecutors alleged that Weinstein preyed on vulnerable women who sought him out to advance their careers.

But New York’s highest court reversed the conviction in April 2024, finding that the trial judge had unfairly let three additional women testify, even though Weinstein wasn’t charged on their allegations.

Jessica Mann will take the stand again to describe how she was sexually assaulted by Weinstein. Picture: AFP

Weinstein was separately convicted of rape in California after an Italian model testified that he threw himself on her after appearing uninvited outside her hotel room during an Italian film festival in 2013.

The convicted sex pest was sentenced to 16 years in prison in that case but is appealing.

Weinstein is considered the poster boy of the #MeToo anti-sex-harassment revolution.

His first trial featured dozens of women dancing and chanting outside the courthouse in flash mob protests against sexual violence.

The former studio chief’s attorneys have argued that the public outcry tainted the jury and thwarted Weinstein’s right to a fair trial.

“Five years ago when you guys were here, there were protests, there were people chanting ‘Fry Harvey,’ ‘Harvey’s a rapist,‘” Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala told reporters last week.

“There was #MeToo, Oprah Winfrey, and then, you know, all these people were just so against him. The jurors had to be terrified if they would have acquitted him about pushback from their own families and their own communities,” Aidala added.

“I think that overall has died down. We have bigger things to worry about with stock markets crashing and wars overseas, and I just think that it’s a different environment.”

Gloria Allred, lawyer for some of Harvey Weinstein's victims, holds up a sign referencing the "Me Too" movement. Picture: Getty Images

It’s unclear if Weinstein will choose to testify. The three accusers who the appeals court — in a 4-3 ruling that a dissenting judge ripped as “disturbing” — said unfairly testified at the first trial won’t take the stand this time around.

“We’re going to try the case on the facts and on the allegations, and nothing else,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber said during last week’s hearing.

Weinstein faces up to 25 years in prison on two counts of first-degree criminal sexual act, and four years in prison on a charge of third-degree rape.

His lawyers are expected to argue at trial that the women consented to the sexual encounters.

– with AFP and The New York Post

Originally published as Harvey Weinstein petitions court to send him to hospital ahead of rape retrial