The once-celebrated Hollywood producer who helped spark the #MeToo motion additionally faces costs in London.
A Los Angeles choose has sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in jail after a jury convicted him of the 2013 rape and sexual assault of an Italian actor and mannequin.
Thursday’s sentence comes on prime of the greater than 20 years the 70-year-old Weinstein has left to serve for the same 2020 conviction in New York, furthering the autumn of the onetime film magnate who grew to become a #MeToo magnet.
Weinstein immediately appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court docket Decide Lisa Lench, saying: “I keep that I’m harmless. I by no means raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1.”
The girl who Weinstein was convicted of raping sobbed within the courtroom as he spoke.
Moments earlier, she had advised the choose concerning the ache she felt after being attacked by Weinstein.
“Earlier than that evening, I used to be a really blissful and assured lady. I valued myself and the connection I had with God,” stated the lady, who was recognized in court docket solely as Jane Doe 1. “I used to be enthusiastic about my future. The whole lot modified after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There isn't a jail sentence lengthy sufficient to undo the injury.”
Lench handed down the sentence Thursday after rejecting a movement by Weinstein’s attorneys for a brand new trial.
Jurors in December convicted Weinstein of 1 rely of rape and two counts of sexual assault towards the lady who, on the trial’s opening in October, gave a dramatic and emotional account of him arriving uninvited at her resort room, speaking his manner in and assaulting her.
The jury spared Weinstein a fair longer sentence once they acquitted him of the sexual battery of a therapeutic massage therapist and failed to achieve verdicts on counts involving two different girls.
The defence contended in the course of the trial that Weinstein had consensual intercourse with two of the ladies he was charged with assaulting and that two others, together with the one whose assault led to his conviction, had been making up the incidents totally.
Final week, Lench rejected a request from Gloria Allred, an legal professional for among the girls who testified on the trial, to permit others to make related statements in court docket concerning the man who has for 5 years been a major goal for the #MeToo motion.
“I’m not going to make this an open discussion board on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Lench stated on the time.
Authorized uncertainties will stay for Weinstein on each the West Coast and East Coast of the US.
New York’s highest court docket has agreed to listen to his enchantment in his rape and sexual assault convictions there. And prosecutors in Los Angeles have but to say whether or not they'll retry Weinstein on the counts that the jury was unable to achieve verdicts on.
It's not but clear the place he'll serve his time whereas these points are determined.
His New York sentence could be served earlier than a California jail time period though a retrial or different points might hold him from being despatched again there quickly.
Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.
He additionally faces costs of indecent assault in London over an incident that occurred in 1996.
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