Harvey Weinstein was caught with Milk Duds in his Los Angeles County jail cell, Variety reports.
Guards found the contraband candy in a search back in November, after Weinstein met with Shawn Burkley, one of his attorneys. Weinstein claimed he brought the Milk Duds with him from his home in New York when he arrived at the LA jail in July, but jail officials searched the sex offender upon his arrival and didn’t find anything, concluding that one of his lawyers snuck the caramels in. Jail officials later threatened to revoke Weinstein of his face-to-face visits with his attorneys, saying they could be forced to use a special booth to prevent more smuggling.
Weinstein and his team apologized for the incident in separate statements to Variety.
“This was an innocent misunderstanding,” Weinstein said. “It will not happen again. I have been a model inmate, following the rules and regulations and I am sincerely sorry.”
Mark Werksman and Alan Jackson, the producer’s lead attorneys, gave a similar statement, saying, “We have been informed about this and are very sorry it happened. It had not happened before, and never happened since. Harvey has been a model inmate and intends to continue as such.”
The “model inmate” is an inmate in the first place because he was found guilty of rape and sexual assault. In 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York, but is currently being held at the Correctional Treatment Center medical unit within the Twin Towers jail in downtown Los Angeles while he awaits trial on 11 different charges of rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein’s faced a number of health challenges while behind bars. In 2020, he was taken to the hospital for chest pains, where he was diagnosed with dangerously high blood pressure. Later that year, he fell “very ill” with COVID-19.
