NEW YORK (TND) — The one-time movie mogul and convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein entered a Manhattan hospital Friday, according to his lawyer, after he was moved from a correctional facility upstate to a city jail that same day.
Attorney Arthur Aidala said Weinstein was moved toBellevue Hospital to undergo a battery of tests after his client returned to the city following the nullification of his 2020 rape conviction.
They examined him and sent him to Bellevue. It seems like he needs a lot of help, physically. He’s got a lot of problems. He’s getting all kinds of tests. He’s somewhat of a train wreck health wise,” Aidala said.
Weinstein was convicted in 2020 on one criminal sex act in the first degree for sexually assaulting former Project Runway production assistant Mirima Haley in 2006 and rape in the third degree for sexually assaulting a woman in a New York hotel in 2013, netting him 23 years in prison.
However, a New York appeals court overturned the conviction Thursday, arguing the judge in the case made rulings that prejudiced the jury, such as allowing witnesses who were, while connected to Weinstein's decades of reported abuse, not directly linked to the specific case to speak to the jury.
While the ruling overturned his conviction and prison sentence, it also called for a retrial. Regardless, Weinstein is set to remain in prison regardless due to the 16-year prison sentence he received during a 2021-2022 rape trial in Los Angeles.
Aidala said he spoke to Weinstein on Friday afternoon after he was in transit to New York City from an upstate jail less than 24 hours after the appeals ruling, which was released Thursday morning.
He said his client's ailments are physical, adding that mentally he is “sharp as a tack. Feet are firmly planted on the ground.”
The lawyer said it usually takes state corrections and prison officials a week or two to arrange to transport a prisoner.
“He was not treated well. They refused to give him even a sip of water, no food, no bathroom break,” Aidala said. “He’s a 72-year-old sickly man.”
The lawyer said he's scheduled to meet with Weinstein on Monday. He added that he plans to tell a judge when Weinstein goes to court on Wednesday in Manhattan that a retrial should occur after Labor Day.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.