A New York judge said the disgraced producer will be remembered less for his films than for becoming the “face” of #MeToo
Disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sexual assault, a New York court ruled on Wednesday.
The 74-year-old former movie mogul was convicted last year of committing a first-degree criminal sexual act against former TV production assistant Miriam Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. The verdict came in a retrial after Weinstein’s previous New York convictions were overturned in 2024.
“I often felt like I was the one on trial,” Haley told the court, according to CBS News. She said pursuing the case had at times felt like “the worst decision of my life” and accused Weinstein of showing no remorse or “sign of change.”
Weinstein has apologized to people he may have hurt but maintains his innocence.
“You’re treated as an animal – you’re actually less than an animal because you’re treated as nothing,” he said of his time behind bars, according to CBS News.
Judge Curtis Farber said Weinstein would be remembered for the films he brought to the silver screen, but that this legacy would “pale in comparison” to his crimes and his becoming “the literal face of the #MeToo movement.”
Before allegations against Weinstein emerged in 2017, he had produced or helped bring to theaters some of Hollywood’s best-known films, including Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, and Shakespeare in Love. The revelations helped propel #MeToo into a global movement, as women publicly accused powerful figures in entertainment, media, politics, and other industries of sexual misconduct.
Wednesday’s sentencing marked a major endpoint in the New York chapter of a courtroom saga stretching back nearly a decade.
Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in New York in 2020 after being convicted of sexually assaulting Haley and actress Jessica Mann. The convictions were overturned in 2024, with the court ordering a new trial.
At his 2025 retrial, Weinstein was again convicted in the Haley case and acquitted of a separate charge involving Polish actress Kaja Sokola. Jurors failed to reach a verdict on a rape charge involving Mann, which prosecutors later dropped.
Separately, Weinstein was sentenced to 16 years in California following a 2022 sexual assault conviction. Weinstein has denied sexually assaulting or raping anyone.
