Harvey Weinstein gets 16 more years in prison, which could lead to life in prison

A Los Angeles court on Thursday sentenced Harvey Weinstein to another 16 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of raping and sexually assaulting an Italian actor and model, which contributed to the downfall of the former movie mogul who became a #MeToo magnet.

The prison term, together with the 23 years he received in 2020 for a similar conviction in New York, amounts to what is likely a life sentence for a 70-year-old man.

Weinstein, seated in a wheelchair and dressed in prison attire, addressed L.A. Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench directly, stating, “I maintain that I am innocent. I have never raped or sexually abused Jane Doe 1.” The woman Weinstein was convicted of raping sobbed in the courtroom as he spoke.

Moments earlier, she told the judge about the pain she experienced after Weinstein’s attack.

“Until that night, I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God,” said a woman identified in court only as Jane Doe 1 through tears, standing at the pulpit behind the prosecutors. “I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant severely beat me.

“There is no jail time long enough to make amends.”

In December, a jury found Weinstein guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against a woman who, at the opening of her trial in October, gave a dramatic and emotional account of how he arrived uninvited in her hotel room during Film Festival 2013 on the eve of the film festival. to an Oscar by coaxing and attacking her during a film festival.

Lunch sentenced Weinstein to eight years for forcible rape, six years for forcible oral copulation, and two years for forcible penetration with a foreign object, for a total of 16 years.

His lawyers demanded that she sentence him to three years in prison on each count and that the sentences be carried out simultaneously.

“Mr. Weinstein has done a lot of good for a lot of people in his 50-year career,” Weinstein’s lawyer Mark Werksman told the judge.

Werksman cited Weinstein’s age and very poor health, suggesting that a long sentence would make it unlikely that he would ever see his five children outside of prison.

Jane Doe 1 could be heard crying in court during Werksman and Weinstein’s speech to the judge.

“This is a fictional story. Jane Doe 1 is an actress. She can bring tears,” said Weinstein, who insisted he had never met the woman. “Please don’t sentence me to life imprisonment. I do not deserve this. There is so much wrong with this case.”

The jury acquitted Weinstein in the case of sexual harassment of a masseur and failed to reach a verdict on the counts concerning the other two women.

“Today, justice has been done for the survivors,” the masseuse, known during her trial as Jane Doe 3, said in a statement through her lawyer after the sentencing. “No woman should be afraid of Harvey Weinstein again as he will never get out of prison.”

The defense alleges that Weinstein had consensual sex with the two women he was accused of committing, and that the other two made up the incidents entirely.

Lench handed down the verdict on Thursday after denying a motion by Weinstein’s lawyers for a new trial. In their arguments, they argued that the judge was wrong to exclude from evidence evidence that the Italian model had a sexual relationship with the director of the film festival she was attending at the time of the attack.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson said that rape protection laws that exclude the victim’s sexual history are inappropriate here because the defense would use the reports to show that the woman had perjured herself and undermined her credibility when she testified that she and the director of the festival, Pascal Videcomini, were just friends and colleagues.

Is the rest of life in prison a fair outcome for Harvey Weinstein?

“If the jury knew that Jane Doe 1 and Pascal were closely related, they would never have bought the story,” Jackson said. “We know they wouldn’t buy it. Because some of them said so.”

Jackson argued that the reports would also have bolstered the defense’s argument that the woman was not even in her hotel room where she testified the attack took place, but was with Vicedomini.

The defense provided the judge with affidavits from jurors, two of whom were present at the sentencing, that the evidence might have forced them to make a different decision.

Lench called the jury’s statements “speculations” about how evidence not legally relevant could be used.

The two jurors, who only gave their names Michael and Jay, told reporters outside the courtroom that they were not there to defend either side, but said rumors about the reports could change the discussion.

This issue is likely to be at the center of Weinstein’s upcoming appeal.

Prosecutors and Weinstein’s lawyers declined to comment on the verdict.

The Associated Press does not usually name people who claim to have been sexually assaulted.

Legal uncertainty remains on both coasts for Weinstein.

The New York Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal on charges of rape and sexual harassment. And prosecutors in Los Angeles have yet to say if they will retrial Weinstein on charges they failed to reach a verdict on. A hearing on a possible retrial is scheduled for next month.

Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.

The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press article and may have revised it prior to publication to ensure it meets our editorial standards.

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