Harvey Weinstein Sentenced To 16 Years In Prison On L.A. Sexual Assault Charges

Topline

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison after being convicted in Los Angeles in December of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault, adding to a 23-year sentence in New York for similar charges, which he is appealing.

Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal … [+] Justice Center in Los Angeles, California, on 04 October 2022.

POOL/AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Weinstein will serve his 16-year-sentence “consecutively after” he serves his sentence in New York, according to Variety.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench sentenced Weinstein.

Weinstein, 70, faced up to 18 years in prison, and said in court, “I maintain that I’m innocent. I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1,” according to the Associated Press.

Lench on Thursday rejected a previous request from Weinstein’s lawyers for a new trial with a new jury, on the grounds that the jury was improperly instructed, and that they have evidence that would question the credibility of the Jane Doe No. 1—Weinstein was found guilty on the charges relating to her.

In 2020, he was sentenced to 23 years in prison in New York after being found guilty on one charge of criminal sexual act in the first degree and rape in the third degree, and in August a court agreed to hear his appeal.

Crucial Quote

“I was excited about my future,” Jane Doe No. 1 said during the hearing. “Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.”

What We Don’t Know

Los Angeles prosecutors have not yet said if they will retry Weinstein on the charges which hung the jury. It’s not clear where he will be imprisoned while this legal issue plays out.

Key Background

Weinstein was once considered to be one of the most powerful people in Hollywood. But in 2017, the New York Times and the New Yorker published allegations of sexual harassment and assault against Weinstein from multiple women, serving as a catalyst for the #MeToo movement. Dozens of accusations have since been leveled against him. Though Weinstein was found guilty on one count of a criminal sexual act in the first degree and one count of rape in the third degree in his New York in 2020 trial, he was cleared of predatory sexual assault and rape in the first degree. His L.A. trial focused on accusations stemming from four women, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, though he was only found guilty on charges related to Jane Doe No. 1, an Italian actress who claimed Weinstein raped her in 2013. He pleaded not guilty to the charges. Weinstein was acquitted of one count of sexual battery, and the jury hung on three other counts. He faced a total of up to 60 years in prison if he was convicted on all four charges in Los Angeles.

Tangent

One month after he was found guilty in Los Angeles, Weinstein appealed his conviction in New York. His lawyers asked that he be charged on just one count of a criminal sexual act, saying that the incident the rape charge stems from is outside the statute of limitations. They also claimed Weinstein received an unfair trial, because the courts “succumb[ed] to the pressure” of the #MeToo movement, and the judge allowed testimony about previous alleged incidents of abuse that were not related to the charges.