Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 years for rape, sexual assault – National | 24CA News

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles choose on Thursday 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.

The sentence comes on high 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 one-time film magnate who turned a #MeToo magnet.

Weinstein instantly appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench, saying: “I maintain that I’m innocent. I never 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. “Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God,” the girl, who was recognized in court docket solely as Jane Doe 1, mentioned. “I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage.”

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 depend of rape and two counts of sexual assault towards the girl who on the trial’s opening in October gave a dramatic and emotional account of him arriving uninvited at her resort room, speaking his means in and assaulting her throughout a movie competition.

The jury spared Weinstein an excellent longer sentence after they acquitted him of the sexual battery of a therapeutic massage therapist and failed to succeed in verdicts on counts involving two different ladies.

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 who led to his conviction — have been making up the incidents completely.

Last week, Lench rejected a request from Gloria Allred, a lawyer for among the ladies who testified at trial, to permit others to make related statements in court docket concerning the man who has for 5 years been a magnet for the #MeToo motion.

“I’m not going to make this an open forum on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Lench mentioned on the time.

2:57Harvey Weinstein discovered responsible of rape, sexual assault by jury in LA

The Associated Press doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted.

Legal uncertainties will stay on each coasts for Weinstein.

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 are going to retry Weinstein on counts they have been unable to succeed in a verdict on.

It just isn’t 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, although a retrial or different points may hold him from being despatched again there quickly.

Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.

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