Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein underwent emergency heart surgery Monday in New York.
Weinstein’s attorney, Arthur Aidala, told The Daily News in New York that Weinstein, 72, was feeling sick on Sunday and he was taken to Bellevue Hospital, where he underwent heart surgery Monday.
He is scheduled to appear in court Thursday in New York, where prosecutors are looking to retry him for alleged sex crimes. Weinstein had been convicted in New York and sentenced to 23 year in prison, but the case was overturned by an appeals court.
Meanwhile, Weinstein is appealing his conviction in Los Angeles for sexually assaulting a model-actress in a Los Angeles hotel room more than a decade ago. Weinstein was convicted Dec. 19, 2022, of one count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object occurring on or about Feb. 18, 2013, on a woman identified only as Jane Doe No. 1.
Jurors deadlocked on a charge of sexual battery by restraint involving an alleged attack in February 2013 against Jane Doe No. 2 and counts of forcible oral copulation and forcible rape involving an alleged attack in 2005 on Jane Doe No. 4 — the latter of whom was publicly identified by her attorney as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The jury acquitted Weinstein of a felony charge of sexual battery by restraint involving an alleged attack on a masseuse — Jane Doe No. 3 — in 2010, but deadlocked on a lesser count involving the same woman. The judge noted that the misdemeanor count was not charged, and the prosecution said in December that it didn’t intend to move forward involving that alleged victim.
Prosecutors later said they did not intend to retry Weinstein on the counts on which jurors deadlocked.
Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
In appealing the conviction, Weinstein is hoping for a similar outcome as the one he received in New York, where an appeals court in April overturned his conviction on rape charges in that state. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison for that conviction. New York prosecutors are expected to retry the case.