Former film producer Harvey Weinstein was on Wednesday sentenced to 23 years in prison, pleading for mercy as his accusers said his punishment in the landmark #MeToo rape case was long overdue.
After two of his accusers confronted him again in a Manhattan court, Weinstein, 67, broke his courtroom silence to say he felt “remorse for this situation.”
However, he also argued that men are being accused of “things that none of us understood.”
Photo: Reuters
“Thousands of men are losing due process. I’m worried about this country,” he said in a calm, but creaking voice. “I’m totally confused. I think men are confused about these issues.”
Weinstein, who has been accused of violating scores of women, was convicted last month of raping a once-aspiring actress in a New York City hotel room in 2013, and forcibly performing oral sex on former TV and film production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in 2006.
He faced a maximum of 29 years in prison.
The conviction at the landmark #MeToo trial was the first criminal fallout from a raft of allegations that the Oscar-winning movie producer used his clout to lure women, sexually assault or harass them, and then silence them.
“Although this is a first conviction, this is not a first offense,” US Judge James Burke said before revealing the prison sentence.
Both of the women Weinstein was convicted of assaulting spoke in court prior to his sentencing about the impact he had on their lives, and the empowerment they felt during the trial when they testified against him.
“Rape is not just one moment of penetration. It is forever,” said the 2013 rape accuser, who recalled a moment during the trial when she left the witness stand in tears and then could be heard screaming from an adjacent room.
“The day my screams were heard from the witness room was the day my voice came back to its full power,” she said.
Asked later about her reaction after the sentence, she wiped her eyes, raised her arm and nodded her head.
The Associated Press has a policy of not naming people who have been sexually assaulted without their consent.
“I believe that if Harvey Weinstein was not convicted by this jury, it would happen again and again and again,” Haleyi said as she broke down in tears, saying the 2006 attack scarred her deeply, made her rethink her career in the entertainment business, and left her feeling paranoid and afraid of retaliation.
Weinstein, who has maintained that any sexual activity was consensual, showed no visible reaction to the sentence.
Beforehand, he gave a rambling speech that touched on his past charitable fundraising, his filmmaking career and a pledge that his new “mission is to help people.”
He said his “empathy has grown” since his downfall.
He said he had thought he had good friendships with Haleyi and the rape accuser, who exchanged warm e-mails with him after the alleged attacks.
Now that Weinstein has been sentenced, his lawyers can move forward with a promised appeal.
He also faces rape and sexual assault charges in California, where he could get up to 28 years in prison if convicted.
Three more sexual assault allegations are under investigation there.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
RSS