Harvey Weinstein: 16 years for rape, sexual assault in LA trial

A Los Angeles judge has sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in prison after a jury convicted him of the 2013 rape and sexual assault of an Italian actor and model.

Thursday’s 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 onetime movie magnate who became a #MeToo magnet.

Weinstein directly appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench, saying: “I maintain that I’m innocent. I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1.”

The woman who 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,” said the woman, who was identified in court only as Jane Doe 1. “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.”

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.

The jury spared Weinstein an even longer sentence when they 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 whose attack 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 the trial, to allow others to make similar statements in court about the man who has for five years been a prime target for the #MeToo movement.

“I’m not going to make this an open forum on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Lench said at the time.

Legal uncertainties will remain for Weinstein on both the West Coast and East Coast of the United States.

New York’s highest court has agreed to hear his appeal in his rape and sexual assault convictions there. And prosecutors in Los Angeles have yet to say whether they will retry Weinstein on the counts that the jury was unable to reach verdicts on.

It is not yet clear where he will serve his time while these issues are decided.