A Los Angeles judge on Tuesday dropped the remaining charges against former US film producer Harvey Weinstein after he was sentenced in February to 16 years in prison for rape and sexual assault.
Weinstein, 70, is already serving a 23-year prison sentence following his conviction in New York in 2020 on similar charges and which he has appealed.
In February, the former producer was convicted of rape and two sexual assaults on a Russian model, Evgeniya Chernyshova, at a Beverly Hills hotel in 2013, a sentence he also appealed.
The Los Angeles jury did not reach the unanimity needed to reach a verdict on the charges against two other women, including Siebel Newsom, wife of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Therefore, the Los Angeles attorney’s office, which had to rule on a possible new trial, announced its intention to withdraw the charges, a position that was confirmed by a judge this Tuesday.
The Los Angeles trial, held between October and December, featured anonymous testimony from four women, who accused Weinstein of coercing them into having sex with him.
Two of these witnesses, Siebel Newsom and Evgeniya Chernyshova, later revealed their identities to the media.
The ex-producer’s defense lawyers sought to cast doubt on the complainants’ words, highlighting, in particular, the absence of forensic elements to support their stories.
The trial resulted in a divided verdict, with the jury convicting Weinstein of the facts related to Evgeniya Chernyshova, but not reaching unanimity on the accusations of Siebel Newsom and another woman.
Weinstein’s 2017 downfall, which produced award-winning hits like “Pulp Fiction” (1994) or “The Artist” (2011), freed the voices of many women and spawned the #MeToo movement.
Rumors about Weinstein’s behavior had been circulating in Hollywood for years, with the scandal finally ‘bursting’ in 2017, thanks to press investigations that compiled several accusations.
Since then, nearly 90 women, including Angelina Jolie, Gwyneth Paltrow and Rosanna Arquette, have accused Harvey Weinstein of harassment, sexual assault or rape.
In addition to criminal prosecutions in the United States, the former producer is also accused in the United Kingdom of sexual assaults dating back to 1996.