Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years for 2006 sexual assault in New York
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for the sexual assault of Mimi Haley, a former production assistant, in 2006 in New York City.
Weinstein proclaimed his innocence, but told Judge Curtis Farber before sentencing, "I am not a perfect person."
"I live with many regrets, and sincerely apologize for my actions," the disgraced movie mogul said.
Weinstein, 74, said he is "treated like an animal, or less" in custody, and said he will focus his final years on advocating for change within the prison system.
Farber told Weinstein that he's never accepted responsibility.
"You had it all. Your legacy could have been cemented with greatness," Farber said. "But you threw it all away by assaulting Miriam Haley."
Haley, a one-time production assistant on the Weinstein-produced reality show "Project Runway," testified that the "unthinkable" happened to her when Weinstein held her down on a bed and forced oral sex on her after she told him no.
Haley told the judge Wednesday that she felt like she's been on trial for the last seven years.
Weinstein was convicted last year of Haley's assault in a retrial, after his 2020 conviction was overturned. The Manhattan District Attorney's Office asked for a 20-year sentence.
On Wednesday, DA Alvin L. Bragg, Jr. thanked Haley "and all of the survivors who came to lend their support."
"I'm moved, as we should all be moved, by their courage and their steadfastness through what has obviously been a challenging process," he said.
Weinstein's defense attorney, Marc Agnifilo, said Weinstein has only been convicted of attacking two women, one in New York and one in California. "It's not dozens, it's two," he told the judge, and said Farber is sentencing him for one case.
Juda S. Engelmayer, Weinstein's representative, said in a statement later Wednesday that his client would "continue to pursue his legal rights and challenge both his conviction and this sentence through the appellate process."
"Harvey continues to maintain his innocence. That does not require diminishing anyone else’s pain, attacking the Court or disrespecting the process," Engelmayer said in a statement.
"What is difficult to reconcile is the extraordinary disparity between this sentence and sentences routinely imposed in New York for the same offense, including cases involving conduct the defense argued was more aggravated."
