Harvey Weinstein says jail time is destroying his health.
People reports that on Wednesday (January 29), the 72-year-old Weinstein told Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Curtis Farber he “can’t hold on much longer” as he pushed for a quick retrial of his 2020 rape and sexual assault conviction in New York. That verdict got flipped in 2024 when New York’s Court of Appeals ruled his trial wasn’t fair because women not connected to the charges got to testify.
Weinstein got hit with 23 years in New York back in 2020, then caught another 16 years in February 2023 after being found guilty of sexual assault in Los Angeles.
He warned that if he stays locked up in Rikers Island, he “won’t be there” when April 15 rolls around. “I can’t hold on,” Weinstein pleaded to Judge Farber. “I’m begging for you to move the date…I want to be out of this hellhole.”
“I want this to be over with,” he added later. “Every day is a struggle in my heart.”
Weinstein even tried speaking up for other inmates. “There are so many people suffering on Rikers Island, so many people I’m with in prison,” he pushed. “I speak for all of them.”
When Weinstein pressed for an April 7 court date, Judge Farber said he’d think about it if Weinstein’s legal team agreed. Weinstein’s next pretrial hearing is set for March 12.
Last September, Weinstein caught more sex crime charges in New York involving three accusers. His lawyers tried getting the charges tossed, but Judge Farber shot them down Wednesday.
In October 2024, doctors diagnosed Weinstein with chronic myeloid leukemia, sending him back and forth between Bellevue Hospital and Rikers Island. Before this, he was locked up at Mohawk Correctional Facility.
Harvey Weinstein Begs to Delay Trial While Trying to Escape His ‘Hellhole’ Prison Cell
