Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers filed a legal claim Tuesday against New York City, alleging the disgraced Hollywood mogul is receiving poor medical care and living in an unhygienic environment at the Rikers Island jail complex.
The notice of claim, a legal document that must be submitted before a lawsuit is formally filed, accuses the city and the facility of negligently failing to provide Weinstein with “timely and adequate” medical treatment and “the most basic human needs,” including clean clothes and “hygienic living conditions.”
Weinstein’s medical issues include chronic myeloid leukemia, diabetes, coronary artery disease, obstructive sleep apnea, obesity and high blood pressure, among other diagnoses, according to the legal filing. He was hospitalized in April and July, and he had emergency heart surgery in September, according to a representative.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the New York City mayor's office said the public hospital system works with the Department of Correction to "ensure people in custody have access to high-quality health care on Rikers Island, including individuals who have complex medical and mental health needs."
In a lengthy statement accompanying the seven-page filing, Weinstein’s lawyer, Imran H. Ansari, compared the Rikers Island facility to “a gulag where the prisoners are treated like animals.”
“When I last visited him, I found him with blood spatter on his prison garb, possibly from IV’s, clothes that had not been washed for weeks, and he had not even been provided clean underwear — hardly sanitary conditions for someone with severe medical conditions and susceptibility to illness,” Ansari said.
“The treatment, or lack thereof, that Mr. Weinstein is receiving on Rikers Island does not only amount to medical negligence, it amounts to cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the Eighth Amendment,” Ansari added in part. “We intend to aggressively fight for his rights, and therein, uphold the integrity of our justice system and the values embodied in our constitution.”
The former film producer’s lawyers are seeking $5 million in damages.
Weinstein, 72, was placed into city custody earlier this year after the New York Court of Appeals overturned his 2020 rape conviction in a 4-3 decision. Manhattan prosecutors are set to retry the case in 2025. Weinstein has pleaded not guilty and denied any wrongdoing.
More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment — allegations that helped fuel the #MeToo movement, a reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful people across the entertainment industry and other fields.
