..
Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 16 years in LA rape case,
slams victim and calls it a ‘setup’
By Marjorie Hernandez
NY Post
February 23, 2023 2:39pm Updated
Harvey Weinstein appeared Thursday in a Los Angeles court, where he was sentenced to 16 years in prison for raping a woman in 2013.
Judge Lisa B. Lench denied the disgraced movie mogul’s request for a new trial before victim, Jane Doe 1, only identified as an Italian model, gave an impact statement.
Weinstein — who is already serving a 23-year prison sentence in New York for criminal sexual assault and third-degree rape — then spoke to the court to plead for leniency before his sentence was handed down.
He said: “I maintain that I am innocent. I don’t know this woman.
“This is about money. This is what happens when there is a cottage industry of lawyers. She had every opportunity to report this to police.
“This is another story, and with all due respect, Jane Doe 1 is an actress. She can turn the tears on. Please don’t sentence me to life in prison. I don’t deserve it. There are so many things wrong with this case.
“This is a setup. I beg your mercy. “
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in prison for the rape of an Italian model in Los Angeles in 2013. AP
Lench then ruled that the sentence on the three counts Weinstein was convicted of would be eight years for forcible rape, six years for forcible oral copulation and two years for sexual penetration by a foreign object, all to run consecutively.
What this article fails to tell us is if the LA sentence is to run consecutively with the NY sentence!
Weinstein had initially faced more than 11 counts of sexual assault against four women which took place between 2004 and 2013 at the trial, which lasted two months and concluded in December.
It took a jury 10 days of deliberation and 41 hours of debate before it reached a guilty verdict against Weinstein.
A mistrial was declared on charges against Weinstein involving Jane Doe 2, who had been previously identified as actress and screenwriter Lauren Young, and Jane Doe 4, who is Jennifer Siebel Newsom — the wife of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Weinstein was found not guilty of sexual battery by restraint of Jane Doe 3, a massage therapist with ties to Mel Gibson.
During her testimony at the trial, Jane Doe 1 had said Weinstein bullied his way into her room at the Mr. C Hotel in February 2013, then forced her to orally copulate with him. She said Weinstein then pulled her into the bathroom, where he raped her.
In her victim impact statement to the court Thursday, a sobbing and trembling Jane Doe 1 said: “Ten years later, the effects of this rape are still raw and difficult to discuss. I have been carrying this weight, this trauma. This irrational belief that it was my fault.
Weinstein’s lawyers Alan Jackson, Mark Werksman and Jacqueline Sparagna arrive at court during his trial. AP
“His selfish, disgusting actions have greatly impacted my life … Everything changed after the defendant brutally assaulted me.
“Your honor, I hope you can understand my suffering. There is no prison sentence long enough to undo the damage. I hope that you give him the maximum sentence allowable.
“I will be forever grateful to the jury who found the defendant guilty of rape.”
Weinstein’s Defense attorney Mark Werksman argued for a lesser concurrent sentence and said Weinstein’s “behavior” with Jane Doe 1 was “only one frenzied ordeal.” The attorney also begged for a lighter sentence because of Weinstein’s age and his deteriorating health.
“He’s a 70-year-old man with bad health, coronary disease, chronic lumbar disc fracture, arthritis,” Werksman said. “Consider the life he lived. Mr. Weinstein did a lot of good for a lot of people.”
He did? I wonder what? Narcissists don't generally do a lot of good for anyone but themselves.
Marilyn Manson’s ex-accuser claims Evan Rachel Wood
‘manipulated’ her into lying: suit
By Eileen Reslen
Page 6
February 23, 2023 | 12:33pm
Ashley Morgan Smithline is backtracking on her previous sexual assault claims against Marilyn Manson, claiming she was “manipulated” into lying. ashleylindsaymorgan/Instagram
One of Marilyn Manson’s former sexual assault accusers claims in a new legal filing that the shock rocker’s ex Evan Rachel Wood and others “manipulated” her into making false rape allegations.
“I succumbed to pressure from Evan Rachel Wood and her associates to make accusations of rape and assault against [Manson] that were not true,” Ashley Morgan Smithline says in an explosive declaration obtained by Page Six exclusively on Thursday.
The 38-year-old model, who is Jewish, previously accused Manson, 54, of forcibly raping her while cutting her with a swastika-emblazoned knife and shoving his fist in her mouth during sex.
She conducted a national TV interview about her claims on “The View” in June 2021 and filed a lawsuit against the “Dope Show” singer. Her case was then dismissed in January after she failed to find new legal counsel.
Smithline also had a People cover story, in which she shared graphic details of Manson’s alleged abuse.
People Magazine
Now, Smithline claims those public appearances and the lawsuit itself were all a farce.
The Los Angeles native says in her declaration that either Wood’s girlfriend, Illma Gore, or Ashley Walters — Manson’s former assistant who also previously sued him — contacted her in 2020.
The women allegedly proposed that Smithline participate in group meetings with others who claimed to be “victims” of Manson, whose real name is Brian Warner, including Wood.
Smithline claims she was asked in the meetings whether she had been “whipped, chained, tied up, branded, cut, assaulted while sleeping, beaten, or raped” by Manson, and she allegedly responded, “No, this did not happen to me, and this was not my experience.”
However, she claims Wood, 35, told her that “just because she could not remember” those things “did not necessarily mean that it did not happen,” alleging it was possible she had “repressed” memories due to her alleged trauma.
Smithline believes Evan Rachel Wood, Manson’s ex-fiancée, had ulterior motives.
There is more to this moronic story on Page 6.
Evan Rachel Wood and Marilyn Manson posing together.
R. Kelly dodges ‘life sentence’ in child porn case
By Jesse O’Neill
February 23, 2023 12:40pm Updated
R. Kelly dodged an effective life sentence Thursday when a Chicago judge tacked on just one extra year to his 30-year punishment behind bars.
The 56-year-old disgraced R&B singer was sentenced in his Illinois case to 20 years in prison — with 19 to run concurrently with his existing, 30-year sentence out of Brooklyn.
That means he’ll only serve one extra year behind bars.
Why the concurrent sentence? Was Kelly charged with sexually abusing his Goddaughter 3 times, or just with making child porn? You can't make child porn without child sexual abuse. Did this little girl's life get ruined for free?
Chicago prosecutors had asked that Kelly be slapped with 25 years, to be served consecutively with the Brooklyn case — which would’ve meant the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer would be eligible for release in 2066 at age 99.
A Chicago jury last year convicted the perv, whose real name is Robert Sylvester Kelly, on six of 13 counts — three of them for producing child porn in connection with videos of himself abusing his 14-year-old goddaughter, and three of enticement of minors for sex.
R. Kelly leaves the Leighton Criminal Court building in Chicago on June 6, 2019.
AP
Kelly spoke at the start of Thursday’s hearing, answering US District Judge Harry Leinenweber when he asked if he had reviewed evidence for any inaccuracies.
“Your honor, I have gone over it with my attorney,” Kelly said. “I’m just relying on my attorney for that.”
Two accusers read statements aloud in court, asking the judge to harshly punish the convicted sexual predator.
“I have lost my dreams to Robert Kelly,” a woman who addressed the court under the pseudonym “Jane” said. “I will never get back what I lost to Robert Kelly. … I have been permanently scarred by Robert.”
“When your virginity is taken by a pedophile at 14 … your life is never your own,” she continued.
Another accuser had addressed Kelly directly, speaking under the pseudonym “Nina.”
“Now you are here … because there is something wrong with you,” she said, as her voice quivered. “No longer will you be able to harm children.”
Kelly was acquitted of charges that he had rigged the not-guilty results of a 2008 child porn trial, in addition to being cleared of three counts of conspiring to receive child pornography and two enticement charges.
Defense attorneys argued that Kelly should be slapped with a 10-year sentence, served concurrently with his current prison term.
Last month, Cook County, Illinois, Judge Lawrence Flood dropped additional sex abuse charges in connection with alleged abuse of three minors and one woman by Kelly at the advice of a prosecutor.
State’s Attorney Kim Foxx said she was comfortable with the dismissal of the state charges because the three-time Grammy winner was set to spend decades behind bars.
What kind of reasoning is that?
The move prompted accuser Lanita Carter to rail that “justice was denied” for her.
“I have spent nearly 20 years hoping that my abuser would be brought to justice for what he did to me,” Carter said.
Another sexual misconduct case against Kelly is pending in Minnesota.
Kelly, who illegally married the late singer Aaliyah when she was just 15 after falsifying documents, was the target of widespread outrage and criminal charges after the 2019 Lifetime docuseries “Surviving R. Kelly” detailed his penchant for abusing minors.
=====================================================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment