Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 additional years in prison, three months after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles, CNN reports.
The disgraced film producer was previously convicted of rape and sexual assault in New York in 2020 and is currently serving a 23-year prison term.
The new sentence nearly doubles the 70-year-old producer’s remaining prison time.
Weinstein’s pattern of predatory behavior galvanized the #MeToo movement.
More than 80 people have made rape and misconduct claims about Weinstein dating back as far as the late 1970s.
In December, Weinstein was convicted of attacking an actress in a hotel room during a film festival in Los Angeles in February 2013. A Los Angeles jury convicted him of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an actress.
Jurors acquitted Weinstein of assaulting another woman, a massage therapist, and failed to reach a verdict on whether he raped or assaulted two other women, including Jennifer Siebel Newsom, an actor and film producer who is now married to Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California.
The sentencing was the second for Weinstein on sexual assault charges since reporting by The New York Times and The New Yorker in 2017 revealed his alleged history of sexual abuse, harassment, and secret settlements as he used his influence as a Hollywood power broker to take advantage of young women.
At the time, Weinstein was one of the most powerful men in Hollywood and helped produce movies such as “Pulp Fiction,” “Clerks” and “Shakespeare in Love.” The revelations led to a wave of women speaking publicly about the pervasiveness of sexual abuse and harassment in what became known as the #MeToo movement.
Like in the New York trial, prosecutors in the Los Angeles trial said Harvey Weinstein was a powerful figure in Hollywood who used his influence to lure women into private meetings, assault them and then silence any accusations.
Be the first to comment