Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting former production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006, concluding another stage of a New York case that has included an overturned conviction, retrial and multiple appeals.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday in Manhattan to 15 years in prison for sexually assaulting former television production assistant Miriam Haley, nearly nine years after allegations against the once-powerful Hollywood producer helped ignite the #MeToo movement.
The 74-year-old Weinstein was convicted again last year of a first-degree criminal sex act involving Haley, who has also used the name Mimi Haleyi. The sentence followed years of litigation that included his original 2020 conviction, its reversal by New York’s highest court and a second trial.
Weinstein, who has denied raping or sexually assaulting anyone, is expected to appeal.
He appeared in court in a wheelchair and was quickly taken from the courtroom after sentencing. Several of his accusers embraced afterward and wiped away tears.
Haley addressed the court shortly before the sentence was imposed, describing the lasting consequences of the 2006 assault.
“Having been sexually assaulted by Harvey Weinstein has had a devastating effect on my life and sense of security that may never go away. Making the decision to speak up will have me looking over my shoulder for years to come,” Haley said. “It’s a life sentence for me.”
She said the lengthy legal process had added to the trauma.
“I’ve been further traumatized in exercising my right to hold him accountable. All of this traces back to his actions,” she said, adding that she had repeatedly considered abandoning her effort to pursue the case.
Weinstein addressed the court minutes later and expressed regret for Haley’s suffering while continuing to deny committing the crime.
“I do have remorse for Miriam Haley’s pain, but I have to reiterate my innocence,” he told the judge.
Judge Curtis Farber noted Weinstein’s former stature in the film industry but said his legacy had been permanently altered by the criminal cases against him.
Farber said Weinstein had once been a king in Hollywood, “but recognition for these achievements will pale in comparison to what you did.”
He said Weinstein is now known as “a sexual predator, the literal face of the MeToo movement.”
Weinstein faced a maximum sentence of 25 years for the attack on Haley at his Manhattan apartment in 2006. He has already spent more than six years incarcerated while his New York case moved through trials and appeals.
His defense attorney, Jacob Kaplan, urged Farber to impose only three additional years beyond the time Weinstein had already served.
Kaplan argued that a substantially longer sentence could effectively ensure that Weinstein dies in prison because of his age and deteriorating health.
Weinstein has been hospitalized six times since 2025, Kaplan said, and has been treated for blood cancer, congestive heart failure and kidney problems.
His attorneys have also said he suffers from chronic myeloid leukemia, diabetes and difficulty walking. Two years ago, he underwent emergency surgery to remove fluid from around his heart and lungs.
With the 15-year sentence, Weinstein is now likely to remain imprisoned into his late 80s unless his conviction or sentence is altered on appeal.
The case has followed an unusually complicated path through New York’s courts.
A jury first convicted Weinstein in 2020 of sexually assaulting Haley and raping aspiring actress Jessica Mann in 2013. He received a 23-year prison sentence.
New York’s highest court later overturned that conviction, finding that the trial judge had improperly allowed testimony from other women whose allegations were not part of the criminal charges being tried.
The ruling led to a retrial last year.
That jury again found Weinstein guilty of the first-degree criminal sex act involving Haley. Jurors acquitted him of forcibly performing oral sex on another woman, Kaja Sokola, but could not reach a verdict on a rape charge involving Mann.
The unresolved Mann charge was tried again this year, but that proceeding ended with another hung jury in May.
Manhattan prosecutors subsequently dropped the rape count rather than seek a fourth trial after Mann said she could not endure testifying again.
That decision allowed the court to move forward with sentencing Weinstein on the Haley conviction.
Weinstein continued to publicly maintain his innocence while awaiting sentencing.
“I will be proven innocent. That I promise you,” Weinstein told The Hollywood Reporter in a jailhouse interview in March.
Haley, now 49, was born in Finland, raised in Sweden and later worked in entertainment before moving into advertising.
She testified that she met Weinstein through a mutual connection and briefly worked as a production assistant on the reality competition program “Project Runway,” which Weinstein produced.
According to Haley, she went to Weinstein’s Manhattan apartment after accepting an invitation because she was scheduled to fly to Los Angeles the following day at his company’s expense to attend a movie premiere and believed refusing the invitation would have been awkward.
She testified that the two initially spoke on a sofa before Weinstein suddenly attempted to kiss her.
Haley said she stood up and rejected his advance, but Weinstein grabbed her, forced her backward into a bedroom and sexually assaulted her despite repeated demands that he stop.
She also testified about another encounter in which she said she had unwanted but not forced sex with Weinstein.
Haley recalled Weinstein asking, “Don’t you think we’re much closer now?” after either the assault or the later encounter.
She said she subsequently told him, “You know you can’t keep doing this.”
Weinstein’s criminal exposure extends beyond New York.
He is also awaiting resentencing in a separate California rape case after an appeals court upheld his 2022 conviction but vacated the original 16-year sentence.
The California court concluded that the sentencing judge had improperly considered Weinstein’s New York convictions as an aggravating factor because those convictions were subsequently overturned.
Weinstein has spent portions of his incarceration in New York state prison and at the Rikers Island jail complex, where he tested positive for COVID-19 early in the pandemic.
Because of his medical problems, he is currently being held in a unit for incarcerated patients at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan.
Before the accusations that destroyed his career, Weinstein was one of Hollywood’s most influential producers. His movies included “Shakespeare in Love,” “Pulp Fiction” and “Chocolat,” and his companies became major forces in independent filmmaking and awards campaigns.
That career collapsed beginning in 2017 as women publicly accused him of sexual misconduct, allegations that became a major catalyst for the international #MeToo movement.
Wednesday’s sentencing adds another 15-year New York prison term to the legal consequences that have followed Weinstein since then, while his attorneys prepare another appeal and his separate California sentencing remains unresolved.
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