LOS ANGELES — Former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison Thursday for a rape conviction in Los Angeles, adding to a more than two-decade-long sentence already handed down in New York.
Weinstein, 70, was convicted in the Los Angeles case in December, three years after he was convicted at a sex crimes trial in New York City.
In the Los Angeles case, a jury found Weinstein guilty of three counts related to the accuser known as Jane Doe 1: forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by foreign object.
The jury found him not guilty of sexual battery by restraint involving a second accuser, identified as Jane Doe 2, and was unable to reach verdicts for allegations involving Jane Doe 3 and Jane Doe 4.
Attorney Gloria Allred filed a motion with the court Tuesday on behalf of three women after a judge denied them the ability to read victim impact statements at the sentencing. Allred’s motion states that the decision violates the women’s rights under Marsy’s Law, which gives the right to those who suffer direct or threatened harm by a crime.
The judge declined to push the sentencing to hear Allred’s appeal, but Jane Doe 1 was permitted to offer a statement to the court before the judge’s sentencing decision.
“I was excited about my future,” she told the court, crying as she spoke. “Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. … I soon became invisible to myself and to the world. I lost my identity. I was heartbroken, empty and alone.”
Weinstein faced up to 24 years in the Los Angeles case, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón has said.
His legal team filed an appeal requesting a new trial, alleging that evidence was excluded about a romantic relationship between Jane Doe 1 and a witness that could have altered the jury’s decision.
Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench denied Weinstein’s request for a new trial.
Weinstein, who appeared in a wheelchair and a gray county jail uniform, was also…
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