Film mogul Harvey Weinstein was found guilty on Monday of raping and sexually assaulting one of four women he was charged with in Los Angeles. Weinstein, who prosecutors announced he used his Hollywood power to lure and assault women to private meetings, was found guilty of three of the seven counts against him.
In 2010, after many weeks of emotional testimony and 10 days of deliberation, a jury in Los Angeles acquitted Weinstein of sexually assaulting a massage therapist in a hotel room with restraint. The decision was determined through hanged jurors in one case of sexual assault in custody, one case of violent verbal copulation, and one case of rape involving two other women.
Weinstein was convicted of three charges, including rape, sexual penetration of a foreign object, and forced oral copulation; these were all linked to one of his accusers, a model, and actress, who testified against Weinstein, who he assaulted in a Beverly Hills hotel room in February 2013.
CNN writes one of the many women’s testifications released by her attorney, “Harvey Weinstein forever destroyed a part of me that night in 2013. I will never get that back. The criminal trial was brutal. Weinstein’s lawyers put me through hell on the witness stand. But I knew I had to see this through the end, and I did… I hope Harvey Weinstein never sees the outside of a prison cell during his lifetime.”
The trial consisted of emotional testimony from Weinstein’s accusers, a model, a dancer, and massage therapist Siebel Newsom, who each described their reactions to the alleged assault.
It was announced that Weinstein would be sentenced to up to 24 years in prison for the Los Angeles conviction. The movie mogul is already serving a 23-year sentence for a 2020 New York rape conviction.