Harvey Weinstein pleaded for leniency before being sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison for rape in a Los Angeles court.
In February 2013, he was convicted of assaulting an actress in a hotel room at a film festival in the city.
Please do not sentence me to life in prison, pleaded the disgraced Hollywood actor. “I don’t deserve it.”
Since the late 1970s, more than eighty people have accused Harvey Weinstein of rape and assault.
The 70-year-old is currently serving a 23-year prison term in New York for a different conviction.
Before his sentencing on Thursday, Weinstein claimed he was innocent and the victim of a “set-up.”
A Los Angeles jury convicted him on December 19 of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against an actress.
The victim, identified as Jane Doe 1 to preserve her anonymity, spoke in court prior to the reading of the punishment.
Since the incident, she detailed the anguish she had undergone for “many years.”
She said,
“Before that night, I was a really happy and confident woman.”
“Once the defendant viciously attacked me, everything changed. There is no sufficient prison sentence to erase the damage.”
Weinstein stated to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench that he was unfamiliar with the victim.
He stated,
“I have never raped or sexually attacked Jane Doe 1.”
He informed the court that the case contained “so many flaws” and “loopholes.”
Weinstein referred to his victim as an “actor capable of producing tears.”
His attorneys, who had requested a three-year sentence for Weinstein, begged the judge to consider his declining health, his children, and his “generous” charitable contributions.
Weinstein sat in court for the majority of the time averting his gaze and did not respond when his sentence was given after the judge denied the defense’s plea for a new trial.
During the same Los Angeles trial, he was cleared of sexual battery against another accuser.
The jury was unable to reach a decision on three other sexual assault charges, including one involving the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom. A mistrial was called for.
It is believed that he will likely appeal the sentence. In Los Angeles, the Oscar-winning film producer was facing up to 18 years in prison.
Due to the jury’s inability to determine whether Weinstein premeditated the rape or whether the victim was “especially vulnerable,” he escaped a maximum 24-year sentence.
Weinstein was given a 23-year prison sentence in 2020 for raping and sexually assaulting a production assistant in 2006 and an aspiring actress in 2013. He filed an appeal.
The verdict was viewed as a turning point for the #MeToo movement, which had shed light on widespread sexual assault and harassment in the film and television industry.
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