NEW YORK _ After dozens of women came forward to share stories of alleged sexual assault at the hands of one of Hollywood's most powerful figures, consequences will finally come for Harvey Weinstein in a New York courtroom Wednesday.
The fallen mogul faces up to 29 years in state prison when he goes before New York State Supreme Court Justice James Burke on Wednesday morning, effectively a life sentence for the 67-year-old.
Weinstein was convicted last month of sexually assaulting former production assistant Mimi Haley and aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2006 and 2013, respectively, after a dramatic weeks-long trial in Lower Manhattan. The Miramax co-founder has denied all wrongdoing and plans to appeal.
Haley and Mann are expected to deliver victim impact statements Wednesday morning, court records show, adding one more chapter to a trial often marked by graphic and emotional testimony. Six women testified against Weinstein during the trial, describing interactions with him that were a combination of brutally violent and mentally draining.
Mann, who had a consensual but abusive relationship with Weinstein that she alleged turned violent whenever she refused Weinstein's advances, had to be helped from the stand and was led out of court sobbing in the midst of three days of marathon testimony last month.
After more than 80 women came forward to accuse the former mogul of sexual harassment and assault at the height of the #MeToo movement, Weinstein was arrested and led into a New York City Police Department precinct in 2018. Prosecutors charged him with multiple counts of sexual assault involving Mann, Haley and actress Annabella Sciorra, who said Weinstein forced his way into her Manhattan apartment and assaulted her in the early 1990s.
Sciorra's case was too old to prosecute on its own, but New York prosecutors used it as the basis for two counts of predatory sexual assault. If convicted of the crime, which would have required jurors to believe Weinstein raped Sciorra and either Mann or Haley, he would have faced a minimum of 25 years in prison and a maximum life sentence.
But Weinstein was acquitted of both those counts. He was convicted of committing a criminal sexual act against Haley, who said Weinstein forced oral sex on her in his apartment in 2006, and third-degree rape against Mann, who said the former mogul raped her in a Midtown Manhattan hotel in 2013.
The conviction related to Mann carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison. But Burke has the option to put Weinstein in prison for up to 25 years for the criminal sexual act conviction, which could essentially ensure that Weinstein spends the rest of his life in prison. The sentences must be served concurrently, so the absolute minimum time Weinstein could spend in prison is five years.
Dmitriy Shakhnevich, a criminal defense attorney who now teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan, said Weinstein's lack of a criminal record will help his fate Wednesday morning. His defense attorneys are also likely to argue for a reduced sentence based on Weinstein's deteriorating health.
The former mogul spent the entire trial moving with the aid of a walker, the result of a spinal decompression surgery he had last year. Shortly after he was convicted, Weinstein's lead attorney, Donna Rotunno, told Burke that her client needed injections to prevent losing his eyesight. Weinstein was also hospitalized for heart palpitations the day the verdict came down, delaying his eventual trip to Rikers Island.
Shakhnevich also said Weinstein's pending trial in Los Angeles should not be held against him.
"The fact that Weinstein is facing other charges really shouldn't be considered. He hasn't been convicted in Los Angeles yet," Shakhnevich said.
In an 11-page memo filed last week, prosecutors asked Burke to impose a sentence that would reflect the "total lack of remorse" Weinstein has shown for his crimes. The document outlined a litany of uncharged allegations against Weinstein, including 16 different instances of sexual assault and harassment, some of which were previously unknown.
Prosecutors laid out allegations from as far back as 1978, when a woman who worked for a music company run by Weinstein said she woke up to him trying to have sex with her as she slept in a New York City hotel room.
Many of the crimes alleged in the sentencing memo followed the same pattern as the allegations made in court that led to Weinstein's conviction _ he would use his industry leverage to isolate a woman, then use that same power to ensure her silence.
In the 1990s, according to the document, a 19-year-old woman working for Weinstein in Britain said she was ordered to visit his hotel room for a "script meeting." Several people were present, but she was ordered to stay behind afterward, when he allegedly raped her, according to the memo. In 1991, another teenage employee in Britain said that she contacted police after Weinstein disrobed and tried to coerce her into sex. Her boss and Weinstein ultimately dissuaded her from cooperating with law enforcement, according to the document.
Prosecutors also interviewed several former business associates of Weinstein, who described him as a cold and violent "monster" during meetings and in the workplace.
In one incident, Weinstein allegedly beat his brother Bob during a meeting, leaving him bloodied and unconscious. After an argument with a Weinstein Co. board member in 2015, the fallen Hollywood titan promised to "send someone to his office to cut off his genitals with gardening shears," according to the prosecution memo.
"Throughout his entire adult professional life, defendant has displayed a staggering lack of empathy, treating others with disdain and inhumanity. He has consistently advanced his own sordid desires and fixations over the well-being of others," prosecutors wrote. "He has destroyed people's lives or livelihoods or threatened to do so on a whim."
