Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 years for rape conviction in Los Angeles
Written by ABC AUDIO ALL RIGHTS RESERVED on February 23, 2023
Disgraced movie mogul Harvey Weinstein was handed another legal defeat on Thursday, when he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for a rape in Los Angeles that reportedly took place in 2013.
The sentence will be served consecutively to a 23-year prison sentence he is currently serving in New York for criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape.
The judge denied Weinstein a new trial during Thursday’s hearing, following a motion from his defense that argued his conviction was based on the improper exclusion of evidence and flawed jury instructions.
A Los Angeles jury found Weinstein guilty of three of seven counts, including one count of rape of a woman identified as Jane Doe 1, late last year. Weinstein faces up to 18 years in prison.
Weinstein was accused by four women of assaulting them in hotels between 2004 and 2013 in Los Angeles. He faced two counts of rape and five counts of sexual assault.
The 70-year-old former movie executive pleaded not guilty and has said all the encounters were consensual.
Following his conviction for rape, Jane Doe 1 said in part, “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.”
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