Jailed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s health problems continue as he has reportedly been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.
The convicted rapist, 72, spent most of the summer hospitalized with various illnesses, from Covid and double pneumonia to needing to have fluid removed from his heart and lungs.
Weinstein is currently receiving treatment at his Rikers Island prison for chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare bone marrow cancer. NBC News reported.
A representative for Weinstein declined to comment in a statement.
Weinstein is currently serving a sentence for rape at Rikers Island prison and was rushed to Bellevue on Sunday night due to “serious medical conditions.”
Jailed movie mogul Harvey Weinstein’s health problems continue as he has reportedly been diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia.
The convicted rapist, 72, spent most of the summer hospitalized with various illnesses, from Covid and double pneumonia to needing to have fluid removed from his heart and lungs.
His lawyer Arthur Aidala says he warned jail officials: “This guy is going to die on your watch if you don’t do something.”
Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone.
He remains in custody in New York while awaiting a new trial in Manhattan, which is tentatively scheduled to begin Nov. 12. He is due back in court for a pretrial hearing this Thursday.
Weinstein has been in and out of Bellevue Hospital since returning to Rikers Island from state prison in April after an appeals court overturned his 2020 rape and sexual assault convictions and ordered a new trial.
He underwent pericardiocentesis surgery at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. in september after having suffered chest pains.
In July, he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, his representatives said.
He also spent 10 days in Bellevue in April, and Aidala said that time Weinstein had “a lot of problems” and was “kind of a disaster health-wise.”
After his conviction in February 2020, Weinstein left the courthouse in an ambulance and made a detour toward Bellevue, complaining of chest pains and high blood pressure. A stent was later inserted to unblock an artery.
Weinstein is currently serving a sentence for rape at Rikers Island prison and was rushed to Bellevue on Sunday night due to “serious medical conditions.”
Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone
After his sentencing, a few weeks later, he returned to the hospital with more chest pains. He later tested positive for COVID-19 just days after being transferred to a state prison near Buffalo.
In 2021, when Weinstein was being extradited to California to stand trial on rape charges there, his lawyers revealed a litany of afflictions, including: diabetes, coronary artery disease, anemia, hypertension, obstructive sleep apnea, chronic low back pain , sciatica, chronic leg pain. pain, arthritis and eye ailments that had seriously degraded his vision. In recent court hearings, he has used a wheelchair.
The state Court of Appeals found that the judge in the 2020 trial unfairly allowed testimony from women whose claims against Weinstein were not part of the case.
In September, prosecutors revealed they had begun taking steps to potentially charge him with up to three additional sexual assaults.
They said they began presenting evidence to a grand jury of up to three previously unmade allegations against Weinstein: two sexual assaults in the mid-2000s and another sexual assault in 2016.
A vote on a possible new indictment was expected soon.
At the same time, British prosecutors said last week they would drop two indecent assault charges against Weinstein in 2022 because there was “no longer a realistic prospect of conviction.”
Weinstein became the most prominent villain of the #MeToo movement, which took root in 2017 when women began going public with accounts of his behavior.
Weinstein was convicted in New York and Los Angeles for a series of sex crimes and was serving a 23-year sentence on the East Coast. In the photo: Weinstein with (LR)Taylor Swift, Este Haim, actress Jaime King and Lorde in 2015.
In the original trial, Weinstein was convicted of forcibly performing oral sex on a film and television production assistant in 2006 and of third-degree rape for an attack on an aspiring actor in 2013. Those accusations will be part of his new trial.
Weinstein’s acquittals on charges of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape remain in place.
After the retrial, Weinstein will begin serving a 16-year sentence in California for another rape conviction in Los Angeles, authorities said. Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022.
Weinstein, co-founder of film studios Miramax and The Weinstein Company, was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, producing Oscar-winning films such as Pulp Fiction and Shakespeare in Love.