Weinstein sentenced to 23 years.
NEW YORK » Harvey Weinstein, the movie producer who dominated Hollywood for decades, was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years in prison for sex crimes, as the six women who had testified against him watched from the courtroom’s front row, holding one another, some in tears.
The startling sentence meant that Weinstein, who is 67 and in poor health, could very well spend the rest of his life in prison. Weinstein, who was sitting in a wheelchair, told the court that he was remorseful but also “totally confused” about what had happened to him. The moment capped a precipitous fall from power for Weinstein that started in October 2017 when, after years of rumors, several women openly accused him of sexual assault and harassment. Their stories led women around the globe to speak about mistreatment at the hands of powerful men, shifting the cultural landscape with the #MeToo movement.
Justice James A. Burke, who presided over the trial in state Supreme Court in Manhattan, could have sentenced Weinstein to as little as five years, but he heeded the arguments of prosecutors who urged him to hand down a long sentence.
“Although this is a first conviction, it is not a first offense,” Burke said. “There is evidence before me of other incidents of sexual assault involving a number of women, all of which are legitimate considerations for sentence.”
Two of Weinstein’s victims gave emotional statements about the damage he had done to them. Miriam Haley, who testified Weinstein forced oral sex on her in 2006, said he had forever altered her life, crushing her spirit.
“He, with physical force, violated my trust, my body and my basic right to reject his sexual advances,” she said.
Given a chance to speak, Weinstein suggested in a rambling speech to the court that he thought his relationships with his victims were consensual. He said he was “totally confused.”
“We may have different truths, but I have great remorse for all of you,” he said, addressing his accusers. “I have great remorse for all the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country.”
He added: “I really feel remorse for this situation. I feel it deeply in my heart. I’m really trying; I’m really trying to be a better person.”
Burke was unmoved. He gave Weinstein 20 years for the felony attack on Haley and an additional three years for the rape of Jessica Mann, an aspiring actress who testified he had forced himself on her in a Manhattan hotel in 2013.
Mann said she hoped for a “future where monsters no longer hide in our closet.”
Within hours of the sentencing, the district attorney’s office in Los Angeles County announced it had begun the process of extraditing Weinstein to California to face sexual assault charges there.