Monitoring Desk
LOS ANGELES: Just before receiving an additional 16 years in jail for rape, ex-film mogul Harvey Weinstein pleaded for mercy in a Los Angeles court.
He was found guilty of assaulting an actress in a hotel room in the city in February 2013 while a film festival was taking place there. The disgraced Hollywood celebrity pleaded with the judge, “Please don’t sentence me to life in prison. I’m not deserving of it.”
Since the late 1970s, more than 80 people have accused Weinstein of rape and other wrongdoing. The 70-year-old is serving a 23-year term in New York for a different offense. Weinstein insisted he was innocent and the victim of a “set-up” before being sentenced on Thursday.
He was found guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an actress by a Los Angeles jury on December 19. Before the punishment was pronounced in court, the victim, who has been given the alias Jane Doe 1, took the stand. She described her anguish after the assault for “several years.”
She said, “Before that night, I was a happy and confident lady. Once the defendant assaulted me severely, everything changed. No amount of time behind bars could repair the harm.” However, Weinstein asserted to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Lench that he was unfamiliar with the victim. He declared, “I never sexually assaulted or raped Jane Doe 1.”
He claimed there were “so many things incorrect” and “so many loopholes” in the case. As an “actor with the ability to turn on her tears,” Weinstein described his accuser. His lawyers asked the judge to consider Weinstein’s declining health, his children, and his “generous” gifts to charity. They had requested a three-year sentence for Weinstein.
As the punishment was announced in court after the judge denied the defense team’s request for a new trial, Weinstein spent most of the time in silence. During the same sexual battery trial in Los Angeles against a different complainant, he was found not guilty. Three other sexual assault counts, including one involving the wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, were left unresolved by the jury.
The case was ruled to be invalid. He is rumored to be planning an appeal against the verdict. In the Los Angeles case, the Academy Award-winning film producer could have served up to 18 years in prison. A jury could not decide whether Weinstein had planned the rape or whether the victim was “especially vulnerable,” saving him from a sentence of up to 24 years.
For sexually assaulting a production assistant in 2006 and an aspiring actress in 2013, Weinstein received a 23-year sentence in 2020. He filed an appeal. The conviction was seen as a milestone in the #MeToo movement that highlighted rampant sexual abuse and harassment in the film and television industry.
