Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein appeals LA rape conviction

FILE – Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Criminal Court, Wednesday, May 29, 2024, in New York. Harvey Weinstein’s lawyers argue that he didn’t get a fair trial in Los Angeles when he was convicted of rape and sexual assault in 2022. (Angela Weiss/Pool Photo via AP, File)

LOS ANGELES – Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein Friday officially appealed his conviction for sexually assaulting a model-actress in a Los Angeles hotel room more than a decade ago.

Weinstein’s attorneys had filed papers more than a year ago indicating their intention to appeal the conviction, and they received a series of extensions from the court to allow more time to prepare the documents, which were officially submitted to the Second District Court of Appeal Friday.

Weinstein, now 72, was convicted Dec. 19, 2022, of one count each of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and sexual penetration by a foreign object occurring on or about Feb. 18, 2013, on a woman identified only as Jane Doe No. 1.

Jurors deadlocked on a charge of sexual battery by restraint involving an alleged attack in February 2013 against Jane Doe No. 2 and counts of forcible oral copulation and forcible rape involving an alleged attack in 2005 on Jane Doe No. 4 – the latter of whom was publicly identified by her attorney as Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The jury acquitted Weinstein of a felony charge of sexual battery by restraint involving an alleged attack on a masseuse – Jane Doe No. 3 – in 2010, but deadlocked on a lesser count involving the same woman. The judge noted that the misdemeanor count was not charged, and the prosecution said in December that it didn’t intend to move forward involving that alleged victim.

Prosecutors later said they did not intend to retry Weinstein on the counts on which jurors deadlocked.

Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison. In appealing the conviction, Weinstein is hoping for a similar outcome as the one he received in New York, where an appeals court in April overturned his conviction on rape charges in that state. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison for that conviction. New York prosecutors are expected to retry the case.

Weinstein publicist Juda Engelmayer, in a statement to NBC News about the Los Angeles appeal, said, “Harvey Weinstein was tried by a system devoted to `getting him’ at all costs. This appeal demonstrates nearly a dozen areas of brazen legal missteps that violated his right to a fair trial. We know he has a solid case here.” (CNS)