Harvey Weinstein's lawyer complains about 'unhygienic, fetid' prison cell during LA sexual assault trial

In order to avoid being sent back to jail, Harvey Weinstein's attorney argued on Tuesday that his client is being confined in a "unclean, fetid" cell. In testimony before Judge Lisa B. Lench, attorney Mark Werksman claimed that Weinstein had been kept in a "unsanitary" holding cell alone in his wheelchair for three to four hours. Werksman noted: "Conditions are nearly medieval. His health and abilities to make it through this hardship worry me. He is seventy years old." The 70-year-old is currently incarcerated in New York for 23 years after being found guilty of many sexual offenses, including rape. The new charges allegedly involve rape and assault that allegedly took place between 2004 and 2013 in hotels in Los Angeles. Weinstein's attorney Mark Werksman added, "I’m worried about him surviving this ordeal without a heart attack or stroke," before requesting "special treatment" for Weinstein, whom he described as a "70-year-old man with health issues." Judge Lench responded that she will "talk to the deputies about it." She stated, "I’m not minimizing it, I’m just not sure there’s a lot to be done." Later, she said to Werksman's co-counsel Alan Jackson, "They don't have an excess of wheelchair vans to come to pick him up when he's ready." However, Werksman continued, claiming that Weinstein is being held without even access to a bathroom and giving the court documents from four separate doctors to support his claim. But Lench quickly refuted the assertion, stating, "He's not deprived of a toilet, there's a toilet in the cell." She said, "I'm not going to let the record reflect that he’s deprived of a toilet. I’m not going to let the record look like he didn’t have access to a toilet." After that, Werksman appeared to retract his initial statement and say he didn't mean to imply there wasn't a toilet. Instead, he claims that the one offered is "unhygienic, it is virtually unusable, it is medieval." As the jury selection process for Weinstein's sexual assault trial in Los Angeles went on, the exchange took place. Lench asked potential jurors if they could be impartial, and 26 of them were already dismissed from the trial, which will begin on October 24. There are now 56 possible jurors who must reappear on Monday. The case "has garnered some media attention," Lench said in her address to the potential jurors on Tuesday. "I understand you may have received information about this case, and about Weinstein generally, before you came into this courtroom," she added. "You may not expose yourself from this point forward to information about this case."