Convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein has reportedly contracted the Coronavirus/COVID-19. That’s according to unnamed sources who spoke to The Niagara Gazette and Deadline. The Gazette’s sources are described only as “officials connected to the state prison system.” According to the Gazette, the sources said Weinstein was one of two inmates who tested positive at the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York. Weinstein was reportedly put in isolation. Deadline described its source as an “Empire State law enforcement official” while noting that the Department of Corrections — officially — “cannot comment on an individual’s medical record.”
The unnamed state officials also told the Gazette that it is thought Weinstein had the virus when he entered the New York prison system last Wednesday from Rikers Island. Weinstein was housed at a medical unit in New York City’s Bellevue Hospital and at Rikers Island Jail before he was transferred to New York State’s Downstate Correctional Facility in Fishkill, New York. From Fishkill, Weinstein was quickly transferred to Wende in Western New York State near Buffalo.
Weinstein’s publicist and legal team could not confirm Weinstein’s medical status as of early Sunday evening.
“Our team that has HIPAA consent has not heard anything like that yet,” Weinstein spokesman Juda Engelmayer told Law&Crime in an email. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know.”
Attorney Imran H. Ansari, who represents Weinstein, told Law&Crime that “as of this time, his legal team has not yet confirmed the report of diagnosis.”
Weinstein turned 68 on Thursday. He was convicted last month of raping actress Jessica Mann and sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haleyi. Dozens of other women claimed Weinstein engaged in sexual misconduct.
If the reports are true, COVID-19 would be one more health problem for the former Hollywood mogul. Weinstein had been in and out of the hospital leading up to trial and between conviction and sentencing.
“After the sentencing yesterday, Harvey Weinstein was experiencing a [similar issue] with his blood pressure where it was elevated to dangerously high levels, coupled with the heart procedure that he had previously, and the concussion he’s being treated for, plus the spinal stenosis,” said Ansari in a March 12 statement to the Law&Crime Network which described some of the treatments.
Law&Crime’s Sarah Puckett and Aaron Keller contributed to this report.
[Image via Spencer Platt/Getty Images]