After N.Y. Verdict, Weinstein's Prior California Conviction Still Stands
In addition to his conviction on Wednesday in Manhattan, Harvey Weinstein has been convicted of similar charges in a criminal case in California.
In that case, brought by prosecutors in Los Angeles in January 2020, Mr. Weinstein was accused of rape and other crimes, convicted and ultimately sentenced to 16 years in prison. Mr. Weinstein appealed his California conviction last year, arguing that he did not receive a fair trial.
Mr. Weinstein's lawyer in California said the new conviction in Manhattan would not stop his legal team from appealing the earlier conviction.
'We continue to fight,' said the lawyer, Jennifer Bonjean. 'This doesn't change the strength of the appeal, which is strong and compelling. We will continue to fight till the bitter end.'
The California prosecution, in Los Angeles Superior Court, focused in part on allegations that Mr. Weinstein raped a woman identified as Jane Doe 1 in a hotel room in February 2013. He was convicted in December 2022 of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. But he was acquitted on four other counts.
That conviction followed Mr. Weinstein's first conviction in New York, in 2020, which resulted in a 23-year prison sentence. The judge in Los Angeles sentenced him to 16 years in prison, which was to be served after he completed his New York prison term.
The Queens district attorney, whose office handles rearrests from Rikers Island, said last year that Mr. Weinstein will be returned to California following his latest New York case and would serve the California sentence first.
New York's highest court overturned his 2020 conviction in Manhattan after determining that the trial judge had erred when he let several women testify that Mr. Weinstein had assaulted them, even though their accusations were not part of the charges brought against him.
In the Los Angeles case, prosecutors called 44 witnesses, including four women who said they had been assaulted by Mr. Weinstein and who were allowed to testify to show a pattern of abuse, though their accounts were not tied to the charges.
At his sentencing, Mr. Weinstein pleaded for leniency, telling the judge that the case against him was not solid and did not justify a long prison term.
'I tried all my life to bring happiness to people,' Mr. Weinstein said in court. 'Please don't sentence me to life in prison. I don't deserve it.'
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