A California appeals court has upheld the 2022 rape and sexual assault conviction of former film producer Harvey Weinstein, though it ordered a resentencing by the trial judge. The ruling was issued Friday by a three-judge panel from the California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.
In a statement, Weinstein's spokesperson Juda Engelmayer expressed disappointment with the decision regarding the trial's fairness but acknowledged the court's finding that the original sentence was not legally sound. "At the same time, the court correctly recognized that his sentence cannot stand," Engelmayer said.
The decision follows a separate development in New York, where prosecutors announced Thursday they would not pursue a fourth trial against Weinstein. That decision came after the accuser in the New York case stated she could no longer endure further testimony.
Weinstein, 74, remains incarcerated. In California, he was convicted in December 2022 on one count of rape and two counts of sexual assault involving an accuser known during the trial as Jane Doe 1. The initial sentence in Los Angeles was 16 years in prison.
His defense team had argued in their appeal that the trial judge, Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench, unfairly restricted testimony from the head of a film festival, seeking a new trial on those grounds. The former movie mogul still has an unresolved felony sexual offense conviction in New York, which followed an overturned conviction and two subsequent hung juries.