NEW YORK, March 19 — Fallen film producer Harvey Weinstein, sentenced to 23 years in prison for rape and sexual assault, was being transferred to a jail in northern New York state yesterday.
Weinstein, who turns 68 today, has stayed at New York’s Rikers Island prison and a Manhattan hospital, where he was treated for chest pains, since his sentencing on March 11.
The state’s department of corrections said he had been transferred into its custody yesterday and that he had been assigned to the high-security Wende Correctional Facility.
The prison is near Buffalo, 350 miles (560 kilometres) northwest of New York City.
Weinstein will be held there while his physical and mental needs are assessed before the department decides in which prison he will serve out his sentence.
Weinstein’s spokesman had earlier provided inaccurate information about which prison the ex-movie mogul was being taken to.
Weinstein was convicted in February of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, while being cleared of predatory sexual assault charges.
He was convicted of raping ex-actress Jessica Mann in 2013 and of forcibly performing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi in 2006.
Nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek, have levelled sexual misconduct allegations against Weinstein, the Oscar-winning producer of Shakespeare in Love and numerous other critical and box office hits. — AFP
