Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 years for rape, sexual assault in California
Disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced in California to 16 years for sexual assault. Weinstein is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape.
Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench sentenced the 70-year-old Weinstein in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday after denying a defense motion for a new trial.
Jurors in December convicted Weinstein of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against an Italian model and actor during a 2013 film festival in the run-up to that year's Academy Awards. 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.
On Thursday, the rape victim, identified by the court only as Jane Doe 1, fought tears to deliver an impact statement to the court before the sentence: "Ten years later, the effects of this rape are still raw and difficult to discuss. I have been carrying this weight, this trauma. This irrational belief that it was my fault."
"Your honor I hope you can understand my suffering," she added. "There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage. I hope that you give him the maximum sentence allowable. I will be forever grateful to the jury who found the defendant guilty of rape."
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 been a magnet for the #MeToo movement.
"I'm not going to make this an open forum on Mr. Weinstein's conduct," Lench said.
Weinstein, sitting in wheelchair wearing gray county jail attire, also addressed the court before the sentencing. "I maintain that I'm innocent," he said. "I never knew this woman, and the fact is she doesn't know me. This is about money."
"This is a made up story," he added. "Jane Doe 1 is an actress. She can turn the tears on."
Last year, Ambra Battilana Gutierrez, one of Weinstein's accusers who has gone public, spoke in an interview with CBS Mornings about facing him in court in his Los Angeles trial. "It's a feeling of being powerful again," she said, adding that her Catholic upbringing taught her to forgive people, but that she never saw "regret in his eyes."
More legal uncertainties remain for Weinstein.
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 counts they were unable to reach a verdict on.
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.