Listen to this article
Average 4 minutes
The audio version of this article was created by AI-based technology. It can be mispronounced. We are working with our partners to continuously review and improve the results.
An appeals court on Friday upheld Harvey Weinstein’s 2022 rape and sexual assault conviction in California, but ordered his judge to remand.
A three-judge panel of California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal issued a unanimous decision.
“We are disappointed in today’s decision and respectfully disagree with the Court of Appeals’ conclusions regarding the merits of Mr. Weinstein’s case,” Weinstein spokeswoman Juda Engelmayer said in an email. “At the same time, the court clearly saw that his sentence will not stand.”
The decision came a day after New York prosecutors ruled Weinstein would not face a fourth trial there, dropping the #MeToo-era case on Thursday after the accuser said she could not testify again.
The former film executive is still under arrest on a sex charge in New York, and is still in prison. But the New York rape case remains unsolved after a two-judge case was dismissed.
In California, Weinstein, 74, was convicted in December 2022 of one count of rape and two counts of sexually assaulting an Italian model and actress known at trial as Jane Doe 1. Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison.
Attorneys for the former film executive argued in his complaint that in his Los Angeles County case, the film festival head’s testimony was improperly ruled out by Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench, and they wanted a new trial.
In New York, Weinstein is awaiting sentencing in September in connection with his assault case involving a different woman. Prosecutors are seeking a 20-year prison sentence. He would only serve his California sentence after that.
After the Los Angeles case, Jane Doe 1 later came forward under her name, Evgeniya Chernyshova, when she sued Weinstein in public court.
The Associated Press rarely names people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they go public like Chernyshova did. His lawyer also said that he agreed to have his name revealed.
Chernyshova testified that Weinstein came uninvited to her hotel room during the 2013 LA Italia Film Festival and assaulted her.
Weinstein’s attorney argued that the judge improperly barred his trial lawyers from asking about Facebook messages between Chernyshova and festival host Pascal Vicedomini that would have shown they had a sexual relationship.
A cross-examination would have shown that he lied when he said he and Vicedomini were just friends and colleagues, Weinstein’s lawyers said. They said it would have strengthened their argument that he was not even in his room on the night of the alleged assault.
“The lower court rejected all of Mr. Weinstein’s defenses,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean told appellate judges April 23 in oral arguments.
David Glassman, who represented the state, said whatever the case was, it was irrelevant. “It does not apply to any issue in dispute in this case,” he said.
Before his sentencing, Weinstein told the judge that this was a “secret affair” of a woman he had never met.
A Los Angeles jury acquitted Weinstein of sexual battery on a therapist and failed to reach verdicts involving two other women.
“This is not the end of the appeals process,” Engelmayer said in an email Friday. “We intend to seek review in the California Supreme Court because we continue to believe that significant legal errors affected the trial and warrant further review.”
Emails seeking comment from Chernyshova’s attorney and Los Angeles prosecutors were not immediately returned.
