Warning: Graphic content NEW YORK -- Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced movie mogul, was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday for a felony sex crime in another #MeToo reckoning. Weinstein’s sentencing for sexually assaulting one-time TV production assistant Miriam Haley followed a legal odyssey spanning more than six years after his 2020 conviction was overturned. A jury found Weinstein guilty again at a retrial last year. Once among the most powerful figures in the entertainment industry, Weinstein was an Oscar-winning producer whose hits included “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat.” But his downfall came quickly after sexual assault allegations in 2017 set off the #MeToo movement. In 2024, New York’s highest court erased Weinstein’s conviction six years ago and ordered a new trial, ruling that Weinstein was prejudiced by testimony from other women whose allegations weren’t part of the case. Weinstein, 74, faced up to 25 years in prison for sexually assaulting Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. He has already served more than six years as his case has cycled again and again through the criminal justice system. Haley gave her account of the assault at two trials and spoke again in court Wednesday just before Weinstein was to be sentenced. “Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away. Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come,” Haley said. “It’s a life sentence for me.” “I’ve been further traumatized in exercising my right to hold him accountable. All of this traces back to his actions,” she said, adding that she thought about ending her pursuit of justice many times. Minutes later, Weinstein apologized in court to those he may have hurt. “I do have remorse for Miriam Haley’s pain, but I have to reiterate my innocence,” he told the judge while seated in a wheelchair. Why Weinstein is being sentenced a second time He was originally sentenced to 23 years in prison after a jury convicted him of assaulting Haley and raping an aspiring actress, Jessica Mann, in 2013. But New York’s highest court erased those guilty verdicts in 2024, ruling that Weinstein was prejudiced by testimony from other women whose allegations weren’t part of the case. Tried for a second time last year, Weinstein was again convicted of a first-degree criminal sex act for assaulting Haley, who has also gone by the name Mimi Haleyi. In a messy split verdict, the jury acquitted him of forcibly performing oral sex on another woman, Kaja Sokola, and could not reach a verdict on a rape charge involving Mann. After another retrial ended in a hung jury in May, Manhattan prosecutors dropped the rape charge rather than pursue a fourth trial after Mann said she could not bear to testify again. That decision cleared the way for Weinstein’s sentencing. Weinstein’s health issues are central to the defence’s plea for leniency Manhattan prosecutors asked for 20 years in prison -- which would keep him behind bars until at least his late 80s. Defence lawyer Jacob Kaplan asked that Weinstein receive a sentence of three more years on top of the six years he’s already served, saying a longer sentence would make it more likely that Weinstein dies in prison. Weinstein is in failing health and has been in the hospital six times since 2025, Kaplan said, while dealing with blood cancer, congestive heart failure, and kidney issues. He has used a wheelchair now for several years. Weinstein has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone. Once he’s sentenced, he can appeal. “I will be proven innocent. That I promise you,” Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter in a jailhouse interview in March. Weinstein is also awaiting resentencing in a separate rape case in Los Angeles. A California appeals court upheld the 2022 conviction but threw out his original 16-year sentence because the judge had considered his New York convictions that were later thrown out as an aggravating factor. After shuffling between state prison, where he tested positive for COVID-19 early in the pandemic, and New York City’s notorious Rikers Island complex, the ailing Weinstein is now housed at a medical unit for jail inmates at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. His health issues in recent years have included chronic myeloid leukemia, diabetes and walking difficulties that necessitate a wheelchair to get in and out of court, his lawyers said. Two years ago, he underwent emergency surgery to remove fluid on his heart and lungs. Haley describes the assault that led to Weinstein’s conviction Haley, 49, is a former entertainment producer now working in advertising. Born in Finland and raised in Sweden, she said she met Weinstein through a mutual connection and worked briefly as a production assistant on a reality competition show that he produced, “Project Runway.” Haley said she accepted an invitation to visit Weinstein’s Manhattan apartment because it would have been odd to decline since she was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles the next day on his company’s dime to attend a film premiere. After she and Weinstein briefly chatted on his living room sofa, he lunged to kiss her, she testified. She said she leaped up and rebuffed him, but he grabbed her, forcibly backed her into a bedroom and sexually assaulted her, ignoring her pleas to stop. She recalled Weinstein asking, “Don’t you think we’re much closer now?” after either the alleged assault or a subsequent occasion when she says she had unwanted, but not forced, sex with him. She also recalled telling him after the second encounter, “You know you can’t keep doing this.” The Associated Press does not typically identify people who say they are victims of sexual assault unless they grant permission, which Haley, Sokola and Mann have done. ___ By Michael R. Sisak and John Seewer, The Associated Press Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. If you or someone you know is struggling with sexual assault or trauma in Canada, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:
