Los Angeles court drops remaining charges against Weinstein
Former producer Harvey Weinstein at the Los Angeles courthouse. (File photo)
A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday dropped the remaining charges against ousted ex-Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein after he was sentenced to 16 years in prison in February.
The former king of cinema, producer of award-winning hits like Pulp Fiction, received this sentence for a rape and two sexual assaults on a Russian model, Evgeniya Chernyshova , at a hotel in Beverly Hills in 2013.
Enough to keep the septuagenarian, whose fall in 2017 freed the speech of many women and spawned the #MeToo movement (#MeToo), behind bars for the rest of his life. He has already been serving a 23-year prison sentence since 2020 after his conviction for similar offenses in New York.
The Los Angeles jurors, on the other hand, had not reached the necessary unanimity to reach a verdict on the charges of two other women, including Siebel Newsom, wife of the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
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The court therefore had to rule on the holding of a possible new trial on these specific charges. The Los Angeles prosecutor's office had announced its wish to drop them, which was approved by a judge on Tuesday.
Mr. Weinstein's lawyers have announced their intention to appeal his sentencing in Los Angeles. The ex-producer also disputes that pronounced in New York.
The Los Angeles trial, held from October to December, saw four women testify anonymously against him, accusing him of forcing them to have sex. Two of them, Siebel Newsom and Evgeniya Chernyshova, later revealed their identities to the press.
The prosecution had portrayed Harvey Weinstein as an all-powerful ogre, a predator whose stranglehold on Hollywood — the films he produced have garnered more than 330 Oscar nominations and 81 statuettes — has long kept his victims in check. to speak, for fear of repercussions on their careers.
His lawyers have meanwhile worked to cast doubt on the word of the complainants, emphasizing in particular the absence of x27; forensic evidence to support their stories.
The trial resulted in a split verdict. Jurors convicted Mr. Weinstein on the Evgeniya Chernyshova charges, returned no verdict on the charges against Siebel Newsom and another woman, and acquitted Mr. Weinstein on those brought by the latter. plaintiff.
Since 2017, nearly 90 women – including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette – have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape. But the statute of limitations has been exceeded in many of these cases, some of which date back as far as 1977.
