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A Los Angeles decide has 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 straight appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court docket Decide Lisa B Lench, saying: “I preserve that I am harmless. I by no means raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1.”
The lady who Weinstein was convicted of raping sobbed within the courtroom as he spoke.
Moments earlier she had informed the decide concerning the ache she felt after being attacked by Weinstein.
“Earlier than that evening I used to be a really comfortable and assured girl. I valued myself and the connection I had with God,” the girl, who was recognized in courtroom solely as Jane Doe 1, stated.
“I used to be enthusiastic about my future. All the pieces modified after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There isn’t any jail sentence lengthy sufficient to undo the harm.”
Decide Lench handed down the sentence on Thursday (native time) after rejecting a movement by Weinstein’s legal professionals for a brand new trial.
Jurors in December convicted Weinstein of 1 rely of rape and two counts of sexual assault in opposition to 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 a good longer sentence once they acquitted him of the sexual battery of a therapeutic massage therapist and failed to succeed in verdicts on counts involving two different girls.
The protection 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 – had been making up the incidents totally.
Final week, Lench rejected a request from Gloria Allred, a lawyer for a number of the girls who testified at trial, to permit others to make comparable statements in courtroom about Weinstein.
“I am not going to make this an open discussion board on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Decide Lench stated on the time.
Authorized uncertainties will stay on each coasts for Weinstein.
New York’s highest courtroom has agreed to listen to his attraction in his rape and sexual assault convictions there.
And prosecutors in Los Angeles have but to say whether or not they’ll retry Weinstein on counts that juries had been unable to succeed in a verdict on.
It isn’t but clear the place he’ll serve his time whereas these points are determined.
His New York sentence can be served earlier than a California jail time period though a retrial or different points may hold him from being despatched again there quickly.
Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.
