By ANDREW DALTON AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles prosecutors told a judge Tuesday that they will not retry Harvey Weinstein on rape and sexual assault charges involving two women.
Deputy District Attorney Paul Thompson announced the decision to Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench at a hearing in downtown Los Angeles. The judge dismissed the charges that a jury failed to reach an agreement on in December and said Weinstein would be returned to New York, where he was convicted in a similar case.
FILE – Former film producer Harvey Weinstein appears in court at the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center in Los Angeles, Calif., on Oct. 4 2022. (Etienne Laurent/Pool Photo via AP, File)
The Los Angeles jury convicted Weinstein, 70, of the rape and sexual assault of an Italian model and actor.
He was sentenced to 16 years in prison. That’s in addition to the 23-year sentence he is already serving for a similar conviction in New York.
Jurors could not reach unanimous verdicts on charges involving two accusers, a rape count and a sexual assault count involving Jennifer Siebel Newsom, a documentary filmmaker and the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and a sexual battery count against model Lauren Young.
Young said at the hearing Tuesday that she was disappointed prosecutors would not be moving forward with a retrial. Thompson said that Weinstein would likely only face an additional year in prison if retried on her count, and while he wanted all the victims to receive justice, that additional stretch was not worth another trial.
Weinstein was acquitted of a count of sexual battery against a massage therapist.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have been sexually abused unless they identify themselves publicly, as the women named here have.
Weinstein’s New York conviction is under appeal and his attorneys plan to appeal his conviction here.
Lench denied a motion for a defense motion for a new trial before Weinstein’s sentencing. His lawyers argued that vital evidence was withheld from the jury.
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