Former Hollywood star producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Thursday to 16 years in prison in Los Angeles for the 2013 rape and sexual assault of a European model. For these acts committed in a Beverly Hills hotel, the 70-year-old former “king” of cinema, producer of award-winning hits like pulp Fiction, faced up to 18 years in prison. He thus risks ending his days behind bars, because he is already serving a 23-year prison sentence after his conviction in New York in 2020 for similar facts and which he appealed.
He prevented his victims from speaking
Even before the announcement of his sentence, Harvey Weinstein had announced that he wanted to appeal his conviction in Los Angeles. This second trial for Harvey Weinstein, whose fall in 2017 freed the speech of many women and spawned the #MeToo movement, saw four women testify anonymously against him.
During several weeks of a bitter and trying hearing, sometimes interrupted by the plaintiffs’ sobs, they accused the former Hollywood titan of having forced them into sex in hotels in Beverly Hills and Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013. The prosecution had portrayed Harvey Weinstein as an all-powerful ogre, a “predator” whose stranglehold on Hollywood – the films he produced have received more than 330 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes – has long kept his victims from to speak out for fear of repercussions on their careers. His lawyers have worked to cast doubt on the word of the four complainants, highlighting in particular the absence of forensic evidence to support their stories.
Damages
The trial ended with a split verdict. Jurors found Harvey Weinstein guilty of all charges brought by the European model. On the other hand, they declared him not guilty concerning those of a second woman, and did not formulate a verdict concerning the allegations made by the other two. After the criminal conviction of the ex-producer, the model, recognized as a victim at the end of the trial, filed a complaint in early February in a Los Angeles court, in order to obtain civil damages.
Consulted by AFP, this complaint does not specify the amount claimed. She insists on the “physical and mental suffering” caused by the rape and the sexual assaults suffered. In 2021, a civil agreement had awarded 17 million dollars to several dozen women accusing the former producer, but this woman was not one of them. Rumors about the behavior of Harvey Weinstein have been circulating for years in Hollywood. The scandal finally broke in 2017, thanks to press investigations compiling multiple accusations, which led to the #MeToo movement.
Since then, nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette, have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape. But the limitation period has been exceeded in many of these cases, some of which date back to 1977. In addition to his legal setbacks in the United States, the ex-producer is also charged in the United Kingdom for sexual assaults which go back to 1996.