California Appeals Court Upholds Harvey Weinstein Conviction, Orders Resentencing

A California appeals court upheld Harvey Weinstein’s Los Angeles rape and sexual assault conviction Friday, but ordered a new sentencing hearing because the trial judge relied in part on New York convictions that were later overturned.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal leaves Weinstein’s 2022 conviction intact while sending the punishment back to Los Angeles Superior Court. The panel said Judge Lisa B. Lench did not violate Weinstein’s constitutional rights during the trial, rejecting his request for a new trial.

Weinstein, 74, was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a Los Angeles jury convicted him of one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving Evgeniya Chernyshova, an Italian model and actor who was identified during trial as Jane Doe 1. Chernyshova later came forward publicly under her name after filing a civil lawsuit against him.

The sentencing issue stems from Weinstein’s New York criminal history. The California decision came one day after New York prosecutors dropped a separate rape charge against Weinstein, ending that unresolved portion of the New York case after the accuser said she could not testify again.

The California panel said resentencing was required because the Los Angeles judge treated the New York convictions as an aggravating factor when deciding Weinstein’s prison term.

Chernyshova testified that Weinstein came uninvited to her hotel room during the 2013 LA Italia Film Festival and assaulted her. Weinstein denied the allegation before sentencing, saying it was a made-up story from a woman he had never met.

His appeal focused largely on the defense claim that the trial judge wrongly limited questioning about Facebook messages between Chernyshova and Pascal Vicedomini, the head of the film festival.

Weinstein’s lawyers argued the messages would have helped them challenge Chernyshova’s testimony about her relationship with Vicedomini and support their claim that she was not in her hotel room on the night of the assault. State attorneys argued the alleged relationship did not bear on the charges the jury had to decide.

The Los Angeles jury reached a mixed verdict after the 2022 trial. Jurors convicted Weinstein on the counts involving Chernyshova, acquitted him of sexual battery involving a massage therapist, and failed to reach verdicts on charges involving two other women.

Weinstein still stands convicted of another sexual felony in New York, where prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison term at a September sentencing. His California sentence would be served after any New York sentence.

Weinstein remains in custody in New York while awaiting sentencing there.