A California appeals court on Friday affirmed Harvey Weinstein’s 2022 conviction for rape and sexual assault, 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 arrived one day after prosecutors in New York moved to end another #MeToo-era case against Weinstein, dropping it Thursday after the accuser said she could not endure testifying again.
Weinstein, once one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, remains incarcerated and is still convicted of a separate sexual felony in New York. However, the New York rape charge had been left unresolved following an overturned conviction and two subsequent mistrials in which juries deadlocked.
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 was later sentenced to 16 years in prison.
As part of the appeal, Weinstein’s attorneys contended that Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench improperly restricted testimony from the head of a film festival during his Los Angeles County trial, and they had sought a new trial.
In New York, Weinstein is scheduled to be sentenced in September on the assault conviction that remains in place and involves a different woman. Prosecutors are asking for a 20-year prison sentence, which he would serve before any California term.
After the Los Angeles trial, Jane Doe 1 later came forward under her name, Evgeniya Chernyshova, when she sued Weinstein in civil court.
Chernyshova testified that Weinstein arrived uninvited to her hotel room during the 2013 LA Italia Film Festival and assaulted her.
Weinstein’s defense argued that a judge wrongly prevented his trial lawyers from asking about Facebook messages between Chernyshova and festival head Pascal Vicedomini that would have shown they had a sexual relationship.
The questioning would have shown she perjured herself when she said she and Vicedomini were just friends and colleagues, Weinstein’s lawyers argued. And they said it would have bolstered their argument that she was not even in her room on the night of the alleged assault.
“The lower court all but gutted Mr. Weinstein’s defense,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean told the appeals judges at April 23 oral arguments.
David Glassman, who represented the state, said any affair was irrelevant. “It doesn’t apply to any contested issue in the case,” he said.
Before his sentencing, Weinstein told the judge that this was a “made-up story” from a woman he had never met.
The Los Angeles trial jury acquitted Weinstein of the sexual battery of a massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving two other women.
“This is not the end of the appellate process,” Engelmayer said in his email Friday. “We intend to seek review in the California Supreme Court because we continue to believe significant legal errors affected the proceedings and warrant further review.”
Emails seeking comment from Chernyshova’s attorney and the Los Angeles prosecutors were not immediately answered.
