WASHINGTON — Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein had emergency heart surgery on Monday, after experiencing chest pains the previous evening at a New York City jail, ABC News reported, citing unnamed sources.
Weinstein, 72, is due in court this week where prosecutors had been presenting evidence to a New York grand jury as they work to secure a new indictment against him on sex crimes charges, ABC reported.
Weinstein, who has denied having had any non-consensual sexual encounters with anyone, was found guilty on rape charges in February 2020. The New York Court of Appeals threw out the conviction in April, finding Weinstein did not get a fair trial because a judge improperly allowed testimony by accusers he was not formally charged with assaulting.
Weinstein remains in custody in New York while awaiting retrial in Manhattan.
After the retrial, he is due to start serving a 16-year sentence in California for a separate rape conviction in Los Angeles, authorities said. Weinstein was convicted in Los Angeles in 2022.
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Weinstein, the co-founder of the Miramax entertainment company and The Weinstein Company film studio, was once one of the most powerful people in Hollywood, having produced films such as “Pulp Fiction” and “The Crying Game.”
He suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, spinal stenosis, fluid on his heart and lungs, and had recently contracted COVID and double pneumonia, according to a statement by Weinstein representatives to ABC.
A spokesman for Weinstein did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
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