Angels.- Harvey Weinstein could see the lengthy prison sentence he is already serving in his California sentence nearly double, bringing the former movie mogul and Oscar lord to a new low after convictions for rape and sexual assault.
Unless she grants a defense motion for a new trial, Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench is due to convict Weinstein, 70, in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on Thursday. She could give him up to 18 years in prison. He has more than 20 years left on his sentence in New York after a 2020 conviction there.
In December, jurors found Weinstein guilty of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault against an Italian model and actor at a 2013 film festival ahead of that year’s Oscars.
The jury spared Weinstein an even longer sentence when it acquitted him of sexual assault by a masseur and returned no verdict on charges involving two other women.
The victim whose dramatic testimony led to the guilty charges may make a statement about the cost of the attack.
Last week, Lench refused a request from Gloria Allred, an attorney for some of the women who testified at the trial, to allow others to make similar statements in court about the man who for five years , has been a magnet for the #MeToo movement. .
“I’m not going to make this an open forum about Mr. Weinstein’s conduct,” Lench said.
The Associated Press generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted.
The judge will first hear arguments in a defense motion that Weinstein should be retried or reduce his verdict. Weinstein’s attorneys say Lench’s rejection of the evidence they wanted to use at trial hurt him.
Defense lawyers claim they should have been allowed to post private messages on Facebook showing that there was a sexual relationship between the Italian woman and Pascal Vicedomini, director of the Los Angeles Italy Film Festival, who was present when he said the attack had taken place.
The motion says the messages would have shown the two lying under oath when they testified that they were just friends and colleagues.
The court filing also indicates that such a relationship would have made it unlikely that Vicedomini would have given Weinstein his hotel room number, where, according to his testimony, Weinstein showed up uninvited. And he says the messages would have bolstered the lawyers’ claim that the woman was going to spend the night with Vicedomini at another hotel that night.
The defense argued in its finding that the two were in a sexual relationship, but Lench allowed jurors to see only the messages between them that established the time and location.
The law gives Lench “sole responsibility to correct these damaging errors that often only become apparent in hindsight,” the attorneys wrote in the motion.
Lench said he would proceed to sentencing immediately if he denied the defense motion.
But legal uncertainties will remain on both sides for Weinstein.
The New York Supreme Court has agreed to hear his appeal on his rape and sexual assault convictions. And Los Angeles prosecutors have yet to say whether they will try Weinstein again on charges they could not reach a verdict on.
It is not yet clear where he will serve his sentence while these matters are decided.
His sentence in New York would expire before a jail term in California, although a new trial or other issues could prevent him from being fired anytime soon.
Weinstein is eligible for parole in New York in 2039.