Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 15 years on New York sex crime conviction

Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 15 years in prison Wednesday, more than a year after a jury found the former Hollywood mogul guilty of sexually assaulting former “Project Runway” production assistant Miriam Haley in a high-stakes retrial.

Weinstein, who pleaded not guilty to a charge of first-degree criminal sexual act, appeared in the downtown Manhattan courtroom in a wheelchair, his hands cuffed to his seat.

In a victim impact statement read aloud in the courtroom, Haley said Weinstein “abused his position and power,” causing a “devastating effect on my life and security.”

“It is a life sentence for me,” Haley said.

Weinstein also addressed the court, again denying the allegations against him while apologizing to “anyone I may have hurt by my actions.”

“I am not a perfect person,” he said, “but I am a person who has made mistakes.” He later added: “I am not a violent man.”

Judge Curtis Farber excoriated Weinstein before handing down his sentence. “You took what you wanted by force and you have never accepted responsibility,” the judge told the former entertainment industry kingmaker.

Farber said Weinstein’s 15-year sentence will be followed by five years of supervised release and a requirement that he register as a sex offender.

Wednesday’s sentencing came after a protracted series of trials, appeals and courtroom proceedings that have kept Weinstein behind bars since his arrest in 2018, one of the key events of the #MeToo movement.

Six-year legal odyssey

Weinstein was originally convicted in 2020 of third-degree rape involving former aspiring actor Jessica Mann and first-degree criminal sexual act involving Haley. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. But his conviction was overturned in 2024 by a New York state appeals court, and a judge ordered a new trial.

Weinstein was again found guilty in June 2025 of first-degree criminal sexual act involving Haley, who testified that he forcibly performed oral sex on her in his New York City apartment in 2006. The same jury acquitted him of a separate criminal sex act charge involving allegations from former model Kaja Sokola.

The jurors at Weinstein’s second New York trial could not reach a verdict on the charge related to Mann’s allegation, and a third trial on that charge also ended in a hung jury. In late June, prosecutors declined to try the Mann case a fourth time.

Weinstein was separately convicted in Los Angeles in December 2022 of rape and two counts of sexual assault related to a 2013 assault of an Italian actor and model. He was sentenced by a Los Angeles judge to 16 years in prison in February 2023.

He is set to be resentenced in L.A. after an appeals court vacated his original sentence.

The former producer and film distributor vehemently denies all allegations of sexual misconduct, insisting his sexual encounters were consensual. In all, more than 80 women have accused Weinstein of sexual assault or harassment.

Weinstein once lorded over Hollywood. Miramax, his first distribution label, released seminal independent films like “Clerks” and “Pulp Fiction.” He won an Oscar as a producer of “Shakespeare in Love.” In the early 2010s, his second distribution company scored back-to-back best picture wins for “The King’s Speech” and “The Artist.”

But his reign came crashing down in 2017 after The New York Times and The New Yorker published exposés detailing his alleged pattern of sexual harassment and assault. The first wave of accusations against him in 2017 propelled the #MeToo movement, a reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful people in high-profile professions.

In recent years, Weinstein’s health has visibly declined, and he has faced various medical issues, including diagnoses of bone marrow cancer, kidney disease and diabetes. He has been held at the Bellevue Hospital prison ward, and he will remain there until he is sent to a state prison.