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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 immediately appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court docket Decide Lisa B. Lench, saying: “I preserve that I’m harmless. I by no means raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1.”
The girl who Weinstein was convicted of raping sobbed within the courtroom as he spoke.
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Moments earlier she had instructed the choose in regards to the ache she felt after being attacked by Weinstein. “Earlier than that evening I used to be a really blissful 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, mentioned. “I used to be enthusiastic about my future. All the things modified after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There isn’t any jail sentence lengthy sufficient to undo the harm.”
Lench handed down the sentence Thursday after rejecting a movement by Weinstein’s legal professionals 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 approach in and assaulting her throughout a movie pageant.
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The jury spared Weinstein an excellent longer sentence after they acquitted him of the sexual battery of a therapeutic massage therapist and failed to achieve 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 — had been making up the incidents solely.
Final week, Lench rejected a request from Gloria Allred, a lawyer for a few of the ladies who testified at trial, to permit others to make related statements in courtroom in regards to the man who has for 5 years been a magnet for the #MeToo motion.
“I’m not going to make this an open discussion board on Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Lench mentioned on the time.
The Related Press doesn’t sometimes title individuals who say they’ve been sexually assaulted.
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 they had been unable to achieve a verdict on.
It’s not 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, although a retrial or different points might preserve him from being despatched again there quickly.
Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
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