Harvey Weinstein has been hospitalized following an 'alarming blood test,' according to his attorney, just days after the disgraced film producer filed a legal claim alleging substandard medical care at New York City's notorious jail complex. Weinstein, 72, was transferred to Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan for 'emergent treatment due to an alarming blood test result that requires immediate medical attention,' said his attorney, Imran Ansari, in a statement.
'It is expected that he will remain there until his condition stabilizes,' the statement continues. 'His deprivation of care is not only medical malpractice, but a violation of his constitutional rights.' The New York City Department of Correction's inmate database confirmed that Weinstein had been moved from Rikers Island to the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward in Manhattan.
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. The case is scheduled for retrial next year. Weinstein has consistently denied any wrongdoing. In a recent legal filing, Weinstein's attorneys accused the city of providing him with substandard medical care for various medical conditions, including chronic myeloid leukemia and diabetes.
'When I last visited him, I found him with blood spatter on his prison garb, possibly from IVs, 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,' Ansari said in a statement that compared Rikers Island to a 'gulag.'
The troubled jail complex, situated on an island in New York City's East River, has come under increasing scrutiny for its treatment of detainees and hazardous conditions. Last week, a federal judge paved the way for a potential federal takeover of the jail system, finding that the city had placed its incarcerated population in 'unconstitutional danger.'
A publicist for Weinstein, Juda Engelmayer, reiterated the allegations in a statement. 'Mr. Weinstein, who is suffering from a number of illnesses, including leukemia, has been deprived of the medical attention that someone in his medical state deserves, prisoner or not,' he said. 'In many ways, this mistreatment constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.'
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