Harvey Weinstein could spend the rest of his life in prison. The 70-year-old film producer, who has been accused by more than 100 women of sexual assault and worse, was found guilty by a jury in a Los Angeles criminal trial Monday on charges of rape, forced oral sex and object penetration. The sentence will be announced in early 2023, based on California law, the sentence is 18 to 24 years in prison.
First, Weinstein has to serve 21 more years in New York
There is no rush, however: Weinstein still has 21 years left of his 23-year sentence in New York before he would be extradited to California. His lawyers have appealed this judgment on the East Coast, and there will be a hearing; and without that guilty verdict in Los Angeles, it might have been possible for Weinstein to have been a free man in the summer of 2023, despite the many and fierce allegations against him.
“I hope he never gets out of prison again in his life,” said a statement from a victim using the pseudonym jane doe 1 had testified and because of which Weinstein was ultimately convicted. In all other cases, the jury members either couldn’t agree on a verdict in nine days of deliberation or acquitted Weinstein: “He destroyed a part of me that night in 2013 that I will never get back. The process was brutal, his lawyers put me through hell on the stand.”
A groundbreaking judgement
The verdict in Los Angeles was considered groundbreaking for this new trial in New York because some witnesses will have to testify again. “My client is ready, 100 percent,” attorney Gloria Allred said after the sentencing hearing outside the Clara Shortridge Foltz building in downtown LA. Your client had as jane doe 2 testified. The jury could not agree on a verdict in this case; ten voted guilty, the other two innocent; After a total of 41 hours of consultation, it was said that no agreement could be reached.
It would be presumptuous to call this verdict a triumph for the victims or the me-too movement; because, if it showed one thing, it’s how tricky it is to get a criminal conviction for sex offenses. As already mentioned: More than 100 women have come forward publicly and described their experiences in detail; the LA trial involved only four alleged victims. The jury found Weinstein guilty on only one count, on the other three they either failed to agree on a verdict after nine days of deliberation or acquitted Weinstein. The public prosecutor’s office had already dropped four other charges at the beginning of the trial.
Felt like an “inflatable doll”
The most prominent alleged victim was Jennifer Siebel-Newsom. The film producer and wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom had as jane doe 4 testified that Weinstein raped her in a hotel room in 2005. He listed a number of famous actresses who all slept with him to further their careers. She felt like “an inflatable doll”: “I’m shaking, I’m crying, he knows it’s not consensual.” Weinstein’s lawyers, on the other hand, painted the picture of an ambitious actress who knew exactly what she was doing – one insulted her as a career-seeking hussy who used sex as currency to gain an advantage in Hollywood: “Tears are not Facts, anger doesn’t make truth.”
Film producer and wife of California Gov. Jennifer Siebel-Newsom was one of the witnesses at Weinstein’s trial.
(Photo: Bill Robles/AP)
“During the trial, Weinstein’s attorneys used sexist, misogynistic and intimidating tactics to discourage, humiliate and taunt us victims,” Siebel-Newsom said in a statement issued after the verdict. In her case, the jury could not agree; Eight of them spoke out in favor of a conviction, four against: “The process is a stark reminder that we still have a lot to do as a society. To all the survivors out there: I see you, I hear you – and I stand by you at.”
This trial showed two other things: how stressful it must be for victims to reveal details of an allegedly traumatic experience on the witness stand and to be tamed by the defendant’s lawyers until contradictions may arise. That happened at jane doe 3; Weinstein was acquitted in that case – her attorney, Lisa Banks, said after the verdict that she wished the prosecution had prepared her better for what was about to happen in the courtroom.
What else happened in this process: Weinstein’s lawyers declared their client to be one who only benefited from a well-known system of the so-called cast couch in Hollywood; in which sex was offered as a matter of course as a medium of exchange for roles or other promotions. Weinstein was so powerful that women voluntarily slept with him to climb the career ladder a little faster. In other words, the alleged victims were publicly demoted to women who would have participated in this perfidious game. They portrayed Weinstein as someone who was badly treated by women who took advantage of his position and then, when his big career didn’t work out, only made up all the accusations to numb their own guilty conscience and become famous as a victim.
“They did everything they could to intimidate and discredit her”
“No one should have to go through what my client endured,” attorney Dave Ring said jane doe 1of which Weinstein was convicted: “They did everything they could to intimidate her and make her appear untrustworthy, but she persevered. Her life has been incredibly difficult since she publicly spoke out about the rape in 2017.” jane doe 1 said, “I knew I would have to see it through to the end; I did.”
Weinstein accepted the verdict against himself without any apparent emotion, and his lawyers left the courthouse without a statement. He is now being transferred to New York; a lawsuit against him is also being filed in Great Britain. He could stay in prison for the rest of his life. Or, as Siebel-Newsom said, “Harvey Weinstein will never be able to rape a woman again.”