Former Hollywood giant Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting his former assistant, Miriam Haley, more than six years after the disgraced producer was first convicted.
Weinstein, 74, was sentenced Wednesday in New York for forcibly performing oral sex on Haley at his apartment in 2006. A jury convicted Weinstein of the charge during a retrial last year after the state’s highest court overturned his original conviction.
Weinstein has already spent more than six years behind bars as his New York case worked its way through trials and appeals.
The sentencing marks the latest chapter in a lengthy legal battle that began with Weinstein’s 2020 conviction on first-degree criminal sexual act involving Haley and third-degree rape involving aspiring actress Jessica Mann. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison at the time, but the conviction was overturned by a New York state appeals court, and a judge ordered a new trial.
In court on Wednesday, Weinstein denied the allegations, claiming he was “not a violent man,” but apologized to “anyone I may have hurt by my actions.”
The disgraced Miramax founder was again found guilty on charges involving Haley, but the second New York case ended in a mistrial after the jury could not reach a verdict on Mann’s allegations.
Prosecutors tried to retry the Mann charge this year, but it ended in another mistrial in May when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. Prosecutors dropped the charge in June after Mann said she could not endure testifying again.
Weinstein was also separately convicted in California, where a jury found him guilty in 2022 of rape and sexual assault involving an Italian model. A California appeals court upheld those convictions in June but vacated his 16-year sentence and ordered that he be resentenced.
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He has maintained that his sexual encounters were consensual. He has admitted to being unfaithful to his then-wife but has maintained that he “acted wrongly, but I never assaulted anyone.”
Weinstein, once one of the most influential figures in Hollywood, became a central figure in the #MeToo movement after he was publicly accused of sexual misconduct beginning in 2017. More than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
