Harvey Weinstein gets 16-year sentence for rape, sexual assault in Los Angeles trial | CBC News
WARNING: This article contains graphic content and may affect those who have experienced sexual violence or know someone affected by it.
A Los Angeles judge on Thursday sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in prison after a jury convicted the former movie producer of the 2013 rape and sexual assault of an Italian actor and model.
The sentence comes on top of the more than 20 years the 70-year-old Weinstein has left to serve for a similar 2020 conviction in New York, furthering the fall of the former producer.
Weinstein directly appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench. “I maintain that I’m innocent. I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1,” he said, using the name by which the woman was identified in court.
“Jane Doe 1 is an actress. She can turn the tears on,” said Weinstein.
The woman Weinstein was convicted of raping sobbed in the courtroom as he spoke.
Moments earlier she had told the judge about the pain she felt after being attacked by Weinstein.
“Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God,” she said.
“I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.”
Convicted in December
Lench handed down the sentence Thursday after rejecting a motion by Weinstein’s lawyers for a new trial.
Jurors in December convicted Weinstein of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against the woman who, at the trial’s opening in October, gave a dramatic and emotional account of him arriving uninvited at her hotel room, talking his way in and assaulting her during a film festival.
Harvey Weinstein was found guilty of rape at a Los Angeles sexual assault trial Monday in another #MeToo moment of reckoning, five years after he first faced allegations.
Weinstein avoided an even longer sentence when the jury acquitted him of the sexual battery of a massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving two other women.
The defence contended during the trial that Weinstein had consensual sex with two of the women he was charged with assaulting and that two others — including the one who led to his conviction — were making up the incidents entirely.
Last week, Lench rejected a request from Gloria Allred, an attorney for some of the women who testified at trial, to allow others to make similar statements in court about the man who has for five years faced many allegations during the #MeToo movement.
“I’m not going to make this an open forum on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Lench said at the time.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.
Dave Ring, an attorney for Jane Doe 1, said Weinstein’s 16-year sentence provided her “with closure and relief, knowing Weinstein will spend the rest of his life in prison where he belongs.”
Legal uncertainties
Legal uncertainties will remain on both coasts for Weinstein.
New York’s highest court has agreed to hear Weinstein’s appeal in his rape and sexual assault convictions there. And prosecutors in Los Angeles have yet to say whether they will retry Weinstein on counts for which they were unable to reach a verdict.
It is not yet clear where he will serve his time while these issues are decided. His New York sentence would be served before a California prison term, though a retrial or other issues could keep him from being sent back there soon.
Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.
Support is available for anyone who has been sexually assaulted. You can access crisis lines and local support services through this Government of Canada website or the Ending Violence Association of Canada database. If you’re in immediate danger or fear for your safety or that of others around you, please call 911.
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