Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 years in rape case

Los Angeles:

Former movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison for raping a woman in a Beverly Hills hotel room a decade ago.

A Los Angeles court has given this sentence. Weinstein is already serving 23 years for his separate 2020 conviction in New York for sex crimes.

That raises the prospect that the Academy Award-winning “Shakespeare in Love” creator, 70, will spend the rest of his life in prison — though he is appealing both cases.

In December, he was convicted by a Los Angeles jury of forcible rape, forcible oral sex and sexual penetration by a foreign object of a European actress, whose identity was not disclosed.

The court heard candid details of meetings between the formerly influential filmmaker and several young women trying to break into Hollywood.

Prosecutors said Weinstein exploited and abused women for years, and enjoyed long periods of impotence because of his then-powerful position in the industry.

Prosecutors said the women would have risked losing their future Hollywood job prospects if they had publicly accused Weinstein at that time.

Weinstein was eventually convicted of assaulting a woman in Los Angeles, but was acquitted of a second sexual battery.

The jury did not reach a verdict on charges related to the alleged assaults of two other women, one of whom was identified by his attorneys as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, now the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.

Weinstein’s attorneys filed a defense motion requesting either a new trial or a lesser verdict, alleging that he was barred from admitting key evidence about the rape victim — including Facebook messages with an alleged lover were included which the judge deemed irrelevant – and that his cross-examination was limited.

But Judge Lisa Lench rejected the offer and sentencing was carried out.

Last June in New York, Weinstein lost his first appeal against his criminal conviction and sentence in the state’s intermediate appellate court.

But he has also appealed that case to the higher New York Court of Appeals.

#Me too

Weinstein’s behavior has been the subject of rumors in the entertainment circle for years, but his power player status in Hollywood ensured that few people were willing to publicly call him out.

The blistering allegations against her came in 2017, starting the #MeToo movement and paving the way for hundreds of women to fight against sexual violence at the workplace.

Dozens of women have now accused Weinstein of predatory behavior.

Following his conviction in New York, a civil lawsuit awarded $17 million to dozens of other women who accused the former movie magnate of misconduct.

Earlier this month, the European actress Weinstein was convicted of raping in Los Angeles also filed a lawsuit seeking damages.

The civil case alleges sexual assault, false imprisonment, willful emotional distress and negligence.

“Defendant Weinstein’s conduct was despicable, and was done with malice, harassment and fraud, thus warranting an award of punitive damages against him,” her lawsuit says.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)