Harvey Weinstein Sentenced to 16 Years for Los Angeles Sex Crimes

LOS ANGELES — Harvey Weinstein, the movie producer whose treatment of women propelled the #MeToo movement in 2017, was sentenced on Thursday to 16 years in prison for committing sex crimes in Los Angeles County.

The sentence in Los Angeles adds to the 23 years Mr. Weinstein is serving in New York after his conviction there in 2020.

In December, jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court found Mr. Weinstein guilty on three counts: forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object. All three counts were related to one woman, referred to as Jane Doe 1 in court, who said she was assaulted at her hotel in February 2013 while in town to attend the Los Angeles Italia Film Festival.

Mr. Weinstein, 70, was not convicted on four other allegations. He was acquitted of one count of sexual battery involving a massage therapist. The jurors could not decide on two counts related to accusations made by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, nor could they agree on one count stemming from allegations by Lauren Young, a model and screenwriter.

The Los Angeles trial was initially seen as symbolic because Mr. Weinstein had already been convicted of sex crimes in New York. But it took on more significance after Mr. Weinstein was allowed to file an appeal in that case, meaning that the California outcome alone could determine his fate.

Prosecutors tried to establish Mr. Weinstein’s pattern of behavior through the testimony of four witnesses whose allegations led to the seven criminal counts, as well as through allegations made by four other women who were allowed to testify that they had been abused by him.

The defense argued that the women had a transactional relationship with Mr. Weinstein and knowingly engaged in sex with him in exchange for professional favors. In some instances, they said the recollections were inaccurate.

During his cross-examination of Ms. Siebel Newsom, Mark Werksman, a lawyer for the defense, accused her of reframing her experience with Mr. Weinstein as negative only after the explosion of the #MeToo movement in 2017. At one point, he told jurors that Ms. Siebel Newsom was “just another bimbo who slept with Harvey Weinstein to get ahead.”

Over two days of testimony, Ms. Siebel Newsom said that she was raped by Mr. Weinstein in 2005 in his Beverly Hills hotel room after she agreed to meet him to discuss her career. She said that she had not come forward earlier because she had tried to ignore the incident as “a way of putting away my sadness, my fear, my trauma, so I could move forward with my life.”

Defense lawyers have requested a new trial, arguing that the jury was improperly instructed and that they were prohibited from presenting certain evidence related to Jane Doe 1.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.