Harvey Weinstein in an Oct. 4, 2022, file photo in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles – A judge in Los Angeles has sentenced former film producer Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in prison after being convicted of rape in his second trial involving the sexual abuse of women. Three years ago, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York, and he will begin serving his second sentence only after the original one expires. According to the website Variety, it is virtually certain that the former Hollywood great will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Advertisement'; }
Today's verdict stems from the attack on an unnamed model and actress that took place in a hotel in Los Angeles in 2013. Weinstein also faced accusations of abusing three other women in last year's trial, but the jury only found him guilty in the case of one of the complainants. She acquitted him of the charges related to another alleged victim and did not reach a conclusion regarding the remaining two.
The convict, who will be 71 years old in March, maintains his innocence even in the case for which he heard the sentence today. Before announcing the sentence, he stated in the courtroom that he did not even know the woman in question. The victim, who appeared anonymously in court, cried during his speech, AP writes, and just before described how the experience with Weinstein had marked her.
“Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman… I was looking forward to the future. Everything changed when the defendant brutally attacked me. No sentence is long enough to undo the damage,” she said.
In 2020, Weinstein was convicted in New York of sexually assaulting a former assistant and raping actress Jessica Mann. More than 80 women have publicly accused him of sexual harassment or abuse in recent years. The former head of production companies Miramax and The Weinstein Company spent decades abusing his influence to put his victims in vulnerable positions, according to their testimony. His scandal broke out in 2017 after the publication of an article by The New York Times, which launched an avalanche of accusations against other well-known men known as the MeToo movement. testified at the trial, but Judge Lisa Lenchová rejected their representative's request. “I'm not going to make this an open forum about Mr. Weinstein's behavior,” she said. At today's hearing, she also rejected the defense's request to resume the trial. Both defense attorneys and prosecutors declined to comment on the verdict, according to the AP.
Weinstein appealed the 2020 sentence, and an appeals court agreed to hear the case last year, with a trial that could begin this year. Prosecutors in Los Angeles have not yet indicated whether they will pursue prosecutions in cases that were not reached by a jury last year. In the meantime, it is not clear where Weinstein, who was extradited from New York to California in the summer of 2021, will serve his sentence.
He cannot be paroled in New York until 2039 at the earliest.
