Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years in New York sex crime case
By HURUBIE MEKO
Harvey Weinstein, the former Hollywood mogul whose downfall fueled the #MeToo movement, was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for a felony sex crime, bringing an end to his criminal case in New York.
Weinstein, 74, was convicted last year of committing a criminal sexual act against a former production assistant, Miriam Haley, in a bedroom in his SoHo apartment in 2006. Manhattan prosecutors had asked for a 20-year sentence. His lawyers had asked for a sentence of nine years.
In sentencing the former movie producer, Judge Curtis Farber of state Supreme Court in Manhattan said Weinstein had been “king in an industry” that many aspired to succeed in and that he had played an outsize role in determining whose dreams would flourish and whose would be crushed.
However, Weinstein will not be remembered for being a Hollywood star-maker, the judge said. Instead, he will be remembered “as the man who a great woman finally stood up against and said no means no,” Farber said.
The sentence Wednesday represented another significant moment in the nearly decade-long legal saga of allegations against Weinstein, once a titan in the film industry whose name became synonymous in recent years with the #MeToo movement, which called for accountability against powerful people accused of sexual harassment and assault.
When Weinstein was first on trial for sex crimes in New York in 2020, it was seen as the culmination of the movement. And the public attention was immense. Throughout his trial, Weinstein had to navigate throngs of cameras and protesters. Inside the courtroom, the gallery overflowed with reporters prepared to broadcast every moment of his trial.
His conviction was hailed as a watershed moment and a hard-fought legal victory.
In the years since, as Weinstein’s cases in New York and California worked their way through the courts, the prominence of the movement waned from public discourse. Weinstein’s lawyers bet that the effects of the #MeToo movement on America’s culture — including its politics and entertainment industry — had faded.
But Weinstein was back in a courtroom in lower Manhattan on Wednesday asking Farber for mercy.
“I am not a perfect person,” he said. He added that he apologized to those he might have hurt through his actions.
“I do have remorse for Miriam Haley’s pain,” Weinstein said. “But I have to reiterate my innocence.”
Haley, who also spoke in court, said at a news conference after the hearing that she viewed the sentence the judge imposed as fair.
Still, she said: “For me, personally, it’s never going to be fair.”
Haley’s case centers on an encounter that took place in Manhattan 20 years ago. Weinstein invited her to “say hi” at his apartment in SoHo in July 2006, she has said in court, the night before they were scheduled to attend a premiere in Los Angeles.
Shortly after she arrived, Haley said, Weinstein backed her into a bedroom, forced her onto a bed, held her down and forced her to let him perform oral sex.
Haley initially testified against Weinstein six years ago, in a trial that led to his first conviction in New York. But an appeals court overturned that verdict four years later, ruling that Weinstein had been deprived of a fair trial. The judges ordered a new one.
In a second trial last year, he was again convicted on a single count of committing a criminal sexual act against Haley. But the jury was unable to reach a verdict on another charge and acquitted Weinstein of a third count. Farber ordered a new trial and said he would wait for the outcome of that trial to sentence Weinstein.
At a third trial this year, the new jury also became deadlocked on the count accusing Weinstein of raping a former aspiring actress, Jessica Mann. The Manhattan district attorney’s office, led by Alvin Bragg, moved to dismiss the remaining charge against Weinstein and said it would not seek to retry him.
In a statement following Weinstein’s sentencing, Bragg said, “today was about the survivors.”
“Ms. Haley, her remarks were powerful, moving and eloquent,” he said. “I thank her first and foremost, and all of the survivors who came to lend their support”
In her statement in court, Haley said that in the years since she came forward she had dealt with ridicule in the news media, been followed by private investigators and been left “questioning every encounter I have.” She thought about pulling out of the case several times, she said, calling the process of going through testifying for two trials “the worst decision of my life.”
She said she had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder because of Weinstein’s actions. “I have been further traumatized in exercising my right to hold him accountable,” she said.
As Haley spoke, at times her voice breaking, several of the women who have also accused Weinstein of wrongdoing nodded along.
“It has often felt that I was the one on trial,” Haley told Farber.
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