Harvey Weinstein, who is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York, was sentenced in Los Angeles Thursday (Feb. 23) to 16 more years for rape and sexual assault charges.
“I maintain that I’m innocent. I never raped or sexually assaulted Jane Doe 1. I never knew this woman, and the fact is she doesn’t know me. This is about money,” Weinstein said in the courtroom prior to the sentencing, according to CNN. “Please don’t sentence me to life in prison,” he added. “I don’t deserve it.”
Weinstein, 70, was convicted last December on charges of rape, sexual penetration by a foreign object and forcible oral copulation after an unnamed woman testified that he assaulted her in a Beverly Hills hotel room in February of 2013. He was also acquitted of one charge, and the jury could not come to a unanimous decision on three other charges, including one related to Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a filmmaker and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Four counts connected to an unnamed woman who did not testify were also dropped during the trial.
The sentencing was the second for Weinstein on sexual assault charges since the 2017 reporting by The New York Times and The New Yorker revealed his alleged history of sexual abuse, harassment and secret settlements as he used his influence as a Hollywood powerhouse to take advantage of women.