Sentencing for the Los Angeles rape case against Harvey Weinstein will not go forward next week after all, the disgraced mogul’s lawyer told TheWrap on Thursday.
Earlier in the day, the Superior Court of California, Los Angeles issued an advisory to the press about the Monday hearing, signaling that Judge Lisa Lench would render her sentence then. But Weinstein attorney Mark Werksman later told TheWrap: “The sentencing hearing was supposed to be Jan. 9 … but it will be continued.”
The sentencing date was initially set when Weinstein was convicted Dec. 19 on three felony counts including forcible rape, forcible oral copulation and forcible penetration by a foreign object. The Los Angeles jury was hung on three other counts – including allegations brought by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Weinstein was found not guilty on one other count.
It is not unusual for sentencing to be delayed in criminal cases, and Weinstein’s lawyers are at work on an appeal of the Los Angeles case that featured 44 witnesses over several weeks.
Weinstein is already serving 23 years in a New York prison for criminal first-degree sexual assault and third-degree rape, a conviction he has been granted the right to appeal. He had faced an additional 60 years in a California prison had the jury convicted him on all seven counts, but with the split verdict, he now faces between 18 and 24 years, which are likely to be served concurrently with his New York time.
More to come …
