A Los Angeles court has found Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein guilty of three counts of sexual assault, including rape. Weinstein, 70, who is two years into a 23-year sentence for a rape and sexual assault conviction in New York that is under appeal, could get up to 24 years in prison in California when he’s sentenced.
Weinstein was found guilty on Monday of rape and two sexual assault charges involving an accuser known as Jane Doe 1 (alias used to protect her anonymity).
The jury could not reach verdicts on allegations by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, and a woman known as Jane Doe 2. A mistrial was declared on those counts. He was also acquitted of sexual battery against an accuser known as Jane Doe 3, reports BBC.
“Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny, and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean, and ridicule us survivors,” Siebel Newsom said in a statement after the verdict. “This trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.”
Harvey Weinstein rape trial
The woman whom Weinstein was convicted on Monday of raping, Jane Doe 1, was a Russian-born model.
The trial's first witness testified that she was in Los Angeles for an Italian film festival in February 2013 when the producer arrived uninvited at her Beverly Hills hotel room and raped her.
“Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 and I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal and Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand, but I knew I had to see this through to the end, and I did,” the woman said in a statement after the verdict. “I hope Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
According to The Guardian, the verdict marks the second time Weinstein has been found guilty of sex crimes. The jury in Weinstein’s criminal trial in New York arrived at a similarly mixed verdict, convicting the former producer of rape in the third degree and sexual assault, but acquitting him of predatory sexual assault and first-degree rape.
According to the latest update on February 24, Weinstein, already serving 23 years in prison, has been sentenced to 16 years in jail in yet another court hearing. In the hearing that took place in Los Angeles, the jury found the producer guilty on account of rape and sexual assault charges.
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