Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years for violent sexual assault
Published in News & Features
NEW YORK — Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to another 15 years in prison on Wednesday for sexually assaulting a TV production assistant in the heyday of his Hollywood career. The sentencing follows a yearslong legal saga for the disgraced film producer whose downfall sparked a global movement against workplace sexual abuse.
State Supreme Court Justice Curtis Farber said the term may run consecutive to the sentence Weinstein must serve for his Los Angeles conviction, depending on a California judge’s decision at his pending resentencing.
Farber handed down the term before a packed proceeding attended by several women who have levied sexual abuse allegations against Weinstein. Prior to the sentencing, the judge heard emotional remarks from the victim in the case, Miriam Haley, and from a sighing Weinstein, who described his life on Rikers Island as a living hell.
Describing Weinstein as a “sexual predator, the literal face of the Me Too movement,” Farber criticized Weinstein for both his crimes and his refusal to accept responsibility for the attacks he was convicted of in both cases.
“You had it all; your legacy could have been cemented as one of greatness, but you threw it all away when you assaulted Miriam Haley,” the judge said.
“It’s quite a serious undertaking to stand in the way of a powerful and dangerous man’s freedom,” Haley addressed the court. “I certainly didn’t think I’d be standing here again, six years after the initial conviction and 20 years after he assaulted me.”
Breaking down in tears, the former “Project Runway” assistant said her self esteem had been shattered as a result of both the assault and having to relive it repeatedly.
“Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of self that may ever go away,” she said.
A jury last summer found Weinstein guilty of violently assaulting Haley inside his SoHo loft in 2006, reaching the same conclusion as the initial set of jurors who heard allegations against the Miramax founder at his landmark #MeToo trial in 2020.
The 2020 conviction was overturned in 2024 by New York’s highest court based on trial testimony unrelated to Haley’s allegations or those of another woman whom he was found guilty of raping, Jessica Mann. It was tried twice by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who attended Wednesday’s hearing.
Urging Farber to impose the same 20 years Weinstein initially received for the attack on Haley, Assistant District Attorney Nicole Blumberg cited the repeat felony offender’s failure to accept “a shred of accountability.”
“Despite being found guilty of that offense not once, but twice, by unanimous Manhattan juries, the defendant has never shown an ounce of remorse and refuses to accept responsibility,” Blumberg said, detailing yearslong efforts by Weinstein to wage a campaign of harassment and intimidation against Haley and other women from his cell on Rikers Island.
“The defendant doesn’t deserve a day less than his original sentence,” the prosecutor said, later adding, “The people of the state of New York should have confidence that justice in 2026 is the same as it was in 2020.”
In a lengthy statement to the court, Weinstein insisted he was sorry and that he did feel remorse. He said his youngest children were growing up without a father and had been severely bullied in school because of their father’s notorious reputation as a sexual predator.
Once considered among the most influential people in Hollywood, Weinstein said he spends 23 hours a day in a cell on Rikers, “shut off from companionship, sunlight.”
“You’re treated as as an animal — you’re actually less than an animal because you’re treated as nothing,” he said. “[It’s] a simple human right staying clean and warm … this is a right denied to me and many of the other prisoners.”
In graphic accounts of the assault given at both trials, Haley, a Swedish native, described how Weinstein, then 54, forcibly performed oral sex on her inside his loft, disregarding her protests and the fact that she was menstruating.
Haley on Wednesday told the court she was serving her own life sentence and believed she would never stop looking over her shoulder, worrying “what this man is plotting — this criminal, who has shown no remorse, no acknowledgment for what he’s done. No sign of change. No sign he would be any different now, if he were free.”
The judge heard impassioned arguments from lawyers for Weinstein, who said the ailing moviemaker, incarcerated since February 2020, had already served enough time in prison.
Defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked the judge to disregard the critical mass of sexual abuse allegations Weinstein has faced in various criminal and civil cases, describing it as noise. He emphasized Weinstein had been criminally convicted of abusing just two women. Weinstein is expected to appeal the sentencing.
Weinstein was separately prosecuted in California and convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2022. That conviction was upheld by a California appeals court but the subsequent 16-year prison term was not. He is yet to be resentenced.
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