After Four Seasons breakfast, a dank jail cell for Harvey Weinstein

Harvey Weinstein’s day began with expensive coffee and Acqua Panna mineral water at a breakfast meeting with his lawyers in a Four Seasons Hotel near Manhattan’s criminal courts. It was to end at New York’s violence-plagued Rikers Island jail complex, where the former Hollywood film producer was ordered to await sentencing after a jury found him guilty on Monday of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another. Weinstein, however, was diverted for unspecified reasons to Manhattan’s Bellevue Hospital, which has a special ward for treating jail inmates, and presumably will be moved to Rikers once “he no longer needs to be in a hospital,” his spokesman, Juda Engelmayer, said. Other news outlets, including Variety, reported the one-time movie mogul had complained of chest pains or heart palpitations. Was Harvey Weinstein scared of a Chihuahua called Peanut? His lawyers had asked that Weinstein, 67, be sent to the jail’s North Infirmary Command – two dank buildings that house sick inmates and those with enough notoriety to require protection from their neighbours. Violence and neglect at the jail have become so entrenched that Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed in 2017 to close it down within a decade. In 2015, federal prosecutors in New York concluded after an investigation that guards routinely abused inmates at the jail, which sits on an island in the East River, beneath the LaGuardia Airport flight path. Housed partly in the jail’s original hospital building, the North Infirmary Command is not much of a respite, according to people who have worked there. A lawyer for Weinstein reminded Judge James Burke on Monday of some of her client’s ailments, noting he takes several medications and requires injections in his eyes to forestall blindness. He entered and left the Manhattan court each day leaning on a walking frame, a remnant, according to his lawyers, of back surgery he had in December. Harvey Weinstein accuser says she tried to fight off disgraced mogul “It’s not the cleanest,” Malissa Allen, a mental health counsellor who has treated inmates at the infirmary, said. “It’s a very old jail. A lot of people complain about the smell. It has the old basement smell.” The main building went up in 1932, according to the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association, the labour union representing the jail’s guards. Weinstein would likely wear a tan jumpsuit to indicate he has yet to be sentenced, Allen said, with his hearing set for March 11. Sentenced inmates are dressed in green. Weinstein’s bail was revoked and he was handcuffed shortly after the jury found him guilty of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006 and raping Jessica Mann, a one-time aspiring actress, in 2013. He has maintained his innocence and a long appeals battle was likely. His lawyer Arthur Aidala said a “shocked” Weinstein muttered ‘I’m innocent, I’m innocent. How could this happen in America?’” Lead lawyer Donna Rotunno promised an appeal, saying “the fight is not over” and applauded Weinstein for taking the decision “like a man”. It was not clear in what kind of room or cell Weinstein would be held. There are bunk rooms with up to 40 or so patients, which have beeping hospital machines to monitor vital signs, Allen said. He may end up in a private or semi-private cell, as often happens with inmates who might be threatened by others. “I would think if you had to be at Rikers Island, you might prefer the infirmary,” Lisa Pelosi, a criminal defence lawyer in New York, said. “But it is definitely not a pleasant place.” More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual misconduct since allegations against him ignited a global reckoning against men abusing positions of power in October 2017. But with many claims too old to prosecute, the jury considered charges related to just two. The prosecution cast Weinstein as a conniving predator who demanded sex in exchange for access to the film universe where he reigned, but presented no forensic evidence or third-party witness accounts. Weinstein has always said his sexual relations were consensual. Women ‘bragged’ about sex with Harvey Weinstein, lawyers say in rape trial The former Hollywood power broker was acquitted of the most serious charges he faced, two counts of predatory sexual assault, which carried a maximum sentence of life in prison. The jury of seven men and five women also cleared him of a first-degree rape charge. But the panel found Weinstein guilty of a criminal sexual act, with a maximum sentence of 25 years, and third-degree rape for forcing oral sex on two women whom prosecutors said he lured with promises of career advancement. Ashley Judd, who has said Weinstein destroyed her film career after she rejected his sexual advances, tweeted thanks after the verdict dropped. “For the women who testified in this case, and walked through traumatic hell, you did a public service to girls and women everywhere, thank you,” she said. Reuters, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg

After Four Seasons breakfast, a dank jail cell for Harvey Weinstein

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Harvey Weinstein remanded in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail after sexual assault conviction He was instead admitted to Bellevue Hospital Centre in Manhattan for chest pains

Harvey Weinstein remanded in New York’s notorious Rikers Island jail after sexual assault conviction

He was instead admitted to Bellevue Hospital Centre in Manhattan for chest pains