LOS ANGELES – A California appeals court on Friday left Harvey Weinstein’s 2022 rape and sexual assault conviction in place, while directing the trial judge to impose a new sentence.
The ruling was issued unanimously by a three-judge panel of California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.
“We are disappointed by today’s decision and respectfully disagree with the Court of Appeal’s conclusions regarding the fairness of Mr. Weinstein’s trial,” Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said in an email. “At the same time, the court correctly recognized that his sentence cannot stand.”
The decision followed prosecutors’ announcement in New York a day earlier that Weinstein would not be tried there for a fourth time. They dismissed the #MeToo-era case Thursday after the accuser said she could not endure testifying again.
Weinstein remains incarcerated and is still convicted of a separate sexual felony in New York. However, the New York rape charge had lingered unresolved after his earlier conviction was overturned and two subsequent juries failed to reach verdicts.
In California, Weinstein, 74, was found guilty in December 2022 of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an Italian model and actor identified at trial as Jane Doe 1. He received a 16-year prison sentence.
As part of the appeal, Weinstein’s attorneys argued that Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench improperly restricted testimony from the head of a film festival during the Los Angeles County trial, and they had sought a new trial.
