Harvey Weinstein sent to Rikers Island prison after a breakfast meeting at Four Seasons Hotel
Harvey Weinstein started his Monday with expensive coffee and Acqua Panna mineral water at a breakfast meeting with his lawyers in a Four Seasons hotel near Manhattan's criminal court but ended it knowing he is likely to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
In what was a landmark decision for the #MeToo movement, the disgraced Hollywood studio boss was found guilty of raping one woman and sexually assaulting another by a jury of seven men and five women after five days of deliberation.
That verdict had followed weeks of often harrowing and excruciatingly graphic testimony from a string of accusers who told of rapes, forced oral sex, groping, masturbation, and lewd propositions from Weinstein.
After the verdict, Weinstein, 67, was ordered to be held at New York's infamous Rikers Island jail complex until he was sentenced for his crimes on March 11. Court officers had then handcuffed him and put their arms under his, leading him unsteadily out of the courtroom via a side door without the use of the walker he relied on for much of the trial.
However, he was hospitalized with chest pains en route to the prison. His attorney Donna Rotunno confirmed he was redirected to Bellevue Hospital Center after suffering heart palpitations and high blood pressure.
The judge then said he would ask that Weinstein, whose prisoner number will be 06581138Z, be held in the infirmary at the city's Rikers Island jail complex after his lawyers said he needs medical attention following unsuccessful back surgery.
Weinstein's lawyers are said to be seeking that their client be sent to the jail's North Infirmary Command, which consists of two buildings that house sick inmates and those with enough notoriety to require protection from their neighbors.
Rikers Island has earned quite the reputation for violence and negligence, with federal prosecutors concluding in 2015 that guards routinely abused inmates at the jail. Mayor Bill de Blasio had subsequently vowed to close it down within the decade.
While the infirmary is reportedly better off than the rest of the prison facility, it's still not much of a respite, according to experts. "I would think if you had to be at Rikers Island, you might prefer the infirmary," said Lisa Pelosi, a criminal defense lawyer. "But it is definitely not a pleasant place."
"It's not the cleanest," revealed Melissa Allen, a mental health counselor who had treated inmates in the infirmary. "It's a very old jail. A lot of people complain about the smell. It has the old basement smell." She said it had bunk rooms with up to 40 or so patients, which have beeping hospital machines to monitor vital signs.
It is still unclear what kind of room or cell Weinstein will be given, though he is expected to end up in a private or semi-private cell to protect him from other inmates. New York City's Department of Correction declined to say where he would be sent.