Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 more years, says he doesn't deserve 'life in prison'

A judge sentenced Harvey Weinstein to 16 years in prison in his Los Angeles criminal trial Thursday, adding on to the 23 years he is already serving as he continues to face repercussions from sexual assault allegations that kickstarted the #MeToo movement.

The jury in December found Weinstein guilty of rape and sexual assault in his second criminal trial. The 70-year-old former movie mogul is already nearly three years into his 23-year sentence for a rape and sexual assault conviction in New York. For his Los Angeles trial, Weinstein faced up to 18 additional years in prison.

Weinstein directly appealed to Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench, saying: "I maintain that I’m innocent. I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1." The woman who Weinstein was convicted of raping sobbed in the courtroom as he spoke.

Moments earlier she told the judge about the pain she felt after being attacked by Weinstein. "Before that night I was a very happy and confident woman. I valued myself and the relationship I had with God," said the woman, who was identified in court only as Jane Doe 1. "I was excited about my future. Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage."

Lench handed down the sentence Thursday after rejecting a motion by Weinstein’s lawyers for a new trial. Lench sentenced Weinstein to eight years for a forcible rape count, six years for forcible oral copulation and two years for forcible penetration with a foreign object, for a combined 16 years.

Here's everything you need to know about the disgraced film producer's latest legal issue.

Read all the biggest revelations from Harvey Weinstein's Los Angeles trial

Weinstein says he doesn't deserve 'life in prison' sentence

Weinstein's attorneys requested that Judge Lench sentence him to three years for each count and have the sentences run simultaneously.

“Mr. Weinstein did a lot of good for a lot of people in a 50 year career, “Weinstein lawyer Mark Werksman told the judge. ”He was a man that many famous movie stars would thank in their Oscar speeches.”

Werksman cited Weinstein's age and very poor health, suggesting a long sentence would make it unlikely he would ever see his five children outside of prison.

Jane Doe 1 could be heard crying in court throughout Werksman and Weinstein's remarks to the judge.

“This is a made up story. Jane Doe 1 is an actress. She can turn the tears on,” said Weinstein, who insisted he had never met the woman. “Please don’t sentence me to life in prison. I don’t deserve it. There are so many things wrong with this case.”

Weinstein found guilty of rape and sexual assault in Los Angeles

In LA, Weinstein was found guilty Dec. 19 of three of seven counts: rape, forced oral copulation and another sexual misconduct count involving Jane Doe 1.

The jury hung on several counts, notably charges involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The jury reported it was unable to reach verdicts in her allegations and the allegations of another woman. A mistrial was declared on those counts.

Weinstein was acquitted of a sexual battery allegation made by another woman.

As the initial guilty counts were read, Weinstein looked down at the table and appeared to put his face in his hands. He looked forward as the rest of the verdict was read. Prosecutors and defense attorneys had no immediate comment on the verdict.

The jury failed to reach a verdict on whether he planned his assault on a model-actor in 2013, which meant Weinstein faced up to 18 years in prison.

Lench declared a mistrial on the issue the following day after the panel reported it couldn't agree on special allegations that Weinstein planned his attack on the woman, and whether she was “particularly vulnerable.” If the jury had found that either circumstance applied, Weinstein would've faced an enhanced maximum term of 24 years at his sentencing.

“Harvey Weinstein will never be able to rape another woman. He will spend the rest of his life behind bars where he belongs,” Jennifer Siebel Newsom said in a statement. “Throughout the trial, Weinstein’s lawyers used sexism, misogyny, and bullying tactics to intimidate, demean, and ridicule us survivors. The trial was a stark reminder that we as a society have work to do.”

What happened at Weinstein's second sex crimes trial?

Over the course of the more than monthlong trial, prosecutors called 44 witnesses to the stand, including four women who Weinstein was charged with raping or sexually assaulting as they alleged experiences of facing sexual assault and rape at the hands of Weinstein, and the pain, shock and shame felt in the aftermath.

Newsom screamed through tears from the witness stand in November when she told the court Weinstein raped her in a hotel room and spoke of the devastating effect it had on her in the 17 years since.

Newsom described how nervous she was after being directed to his hotel suite. Asked by Deputy District Attorney Marlene Martinez why she didn’t walk away, she said: “Because you don’t say no to Harvey Weinstein. He could make or ruin your career.”

Lauren Young — the only accuser to testify in both New York and Los Angeles trials — took the stand and said Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel bathroom in 2013 while she repeatedly told him "no."

Young, who is going by Jane Doe in court, said she was paralyzed by fear when Weinstein blocked her from leaving the bathroom, masturbated in front of her and groped her breasts.

When Young testified in New York in February 2020, she was not one of the accusers whose stories would lead to Weinstein's conviction for rape and sexual assault and a 23-year prison sentence because her alleged encounter with Weinstein took place in California, not New York. Prosecutors called on her at that time as a "prior bad acts" witness to testify to establish an alleged pattern of Weinstein preying on women.

Kelly Sipherd testified that Weinstein sexually assaulted her in a hotel room during the Toronto International Film Festival in 1991 when she was 24 and an aspiring actor, then did it again when she went to confront him in the same hotel during the same festival 17 years later.

During closing arguments, Weinstein's attorney Alan Jackson argued that two of the women were entirely lying about their encounters, while the other two took part in “transactional sex” for the sake of career advancement that was “100% consensual.” But after the #MeToo explosion around Weinstein with stories in the New York Times and the New Yorker — which Jackson called a “dogpile” on his client — the women became regretful.

“Regret is not rape,” Jackson told jurors several times.

Prosecutors concluded their arguments by urging jurors to complete Weinstein’s takedown by convicting him in California.

“It is time for the defendant’s reign of terror to end,” Martinez said. “It is time for the kingmaker to be brought to justice.”

Weinstein lawyers argue for overlooked evidence

In arguments, Weinstein's lawyers said Judge Lench was wrong to exclude from evidence messages showing that Jane Doe 1 had a sexual relationship with the director of the film festival she was visiting during the attack. At the trial’s opening in October, the woman gave a dramatic and emotional account of Weinstein arriving uninvited at her hotel room during a 2013 film festival in the run-up to the Oscars, talking his way in and assaulting her.

Jackson said rape shield laws excluding the sexual history of a victim were not relevant here because the defense would have used the messages to show that the woman perjured herself and damaged her credibility when she testified that she and the festival director, Pascal Vicedomini, were merely friends and colleagues.

“If the jury had known that Jane Doe 1 and Pascal were intimately involved, they never would have bought the story that was told,” Jackson said. “We know they wouldn’t have bought it. Because some of them have said so.”

Jackson argued that the messages would also have bolstered defense arguments that the woman was not even in her hotel room, where she testified the attack occurred, but was with Vicedomini.

The defense had given the judge affidavits from jurors, two of whom were in the audience for the sentencing, that the evidence might have made them decide differently. Lench called the juror statements “speculation” about how the evidence would have played out that were not relevant under the law.

The issue is likely to be at the forefront of Weinstein's upcoming appeal.

Weinstein was already convicted of sex crimes

Weinstein's 2020 New York sex crimes case resulted in his conviction on charges of sexual assault and third-degree rape, though in August he was granted a bid to appeal those charges. He was initially sent to Rikers Island in New York, but was extradited in 2021 to a California county jail as he faced the West Coast charge.

Weinstein’s New York conviction survived an initial appeal, but the case is set to be heard by the state’s highest court later this year. The California conviction, also likely to be appealed, means he will not walk free even if the East Coast conviction is thrown out.

Contributing: Elise Brisco, Naledi Ushe, Maria Puente, USA TODAY; Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harvey Weinstein sentencing: LA rape case adds 16 years to prison time