Harvey Weinstein’s California rape conviction upheld, but court says he
must be resentenced
[June 27, 2026]
By ANDREW DALTON
LOS ANGELES (AP) — An appeals court on Friday upheld Harvey Weinstein's
2022 rape and sexual assault conviction in California, but ordered the
trial judge who gave him 16 years in prison to resentence him.
A three-judge panel from California's 2nd District Court of Appeal
unanimously issued the decision, saying his trial judge did not violate
the former movie magnate's constitutional rights.
“We reject his attempts to disturb the jury’s guilty verdicts,” the
judges wrote in their opinion.
Weinstein spokesperson Juda Engelmayer said in an email that “We are
disappointed by today’s decision and respectfully disagree with the
Court of Appeal’s conclusions regarding the fairness of Mr. Weinstein’s
trial. At the same time, the court correctly recognized that his
sentence cannot stand.”
The decision came a day after prosecutors in New York decided Weinstein
would not face a fourth trial there, dropping the #MeToo-era case after
the accuser said she could not bear to testify again.
The California panel said that resentencing was necessary because the
judge that sentenced him considered New York convictions that were later
thrown out as an aggravating factor. California's attorney general
agreed.
Weinstein, 74, still stands convicted of another sexual felony in New
York, and he remains behind bars awaiting a September sentencing there.
Prosecutors there are seeking a 20-year prison term.
In California, Weinstein was convicted in December 2022 of one count of
rape and two counts of sexual assault against an Italian model and actor
known during the trial as Jane Doe 1. He would serve his new sentence
there only after his New York term is complete.
After the trial, Jane Doe 1 came forward under her name, Evgeniya
Chernyshova, when she sued Weinstein in civil court.
The Associated Press does not typically name people who say they have
been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly as Chernyshova
did. Her attorney also said she consented to being named.
Chernyshova testified that Weinstein arrived uninvited to her hotel room
during the 2013 LA Italia Film Festival and assaulted her.
Weinstein’s defense argued that Weinstein deserved a new trial because
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa B. Lench wrongly prevented his
trial lawyers from asking about Facebook messages between Chernyshova
and festival head Pascal Vicedomini that would have shown they had a
sexual relationship.
The questioning would have demonstrated that she perjured herself when
she said she and Vicedomini were just friends and colleagues, the
defense said. And the lawyers argued it would have bolstered their
assertion that she was not even in her room on the night of the alleged
assault.
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Harvey Weinstein appears in Manhattan Supreme Court Thursday, June
25, 2026 in New York. (Steven Hirsch/New York Post via AP, Pool)
 “The lower court all but gutted Mr.
Weinstein’s defense,” attorney Jennifer Bonjean told the appeals
judges at April 23 oral arguments.
But the appeals court said in its ruling that Weinstein did make the
arguments he wanted during the trial based on other evidence,
including another set of Facebook messages that Lench allowed.
“Thus, there was no denial of Weinstein’s constitutional right to
present a defense,” the panel wrote in its opinion.
The three judges also found that Weinstein's lawyers failed to
adhere to California's rape shield law prohibiting evidence of an
accuser's sexual history when they tried to introduce the messages.
Weinstein's lawyers had argued that the shield law was not pertinent
because they wanted to use the messages only to impeach the
witness's credibility.
And the appeals judges said testimony from accusers describing
sexual assaults Weinstein was not charged with was appropriate, and
allowed under state law.
Before his sentencing, Weinstein told the judge that this was a
“made-up story” from a woman he had never met.
The Los Angeles jury acquitted Weinstein of the sexual battery of a
massage therapist and failed to reach verdicts on counts involving
two other women.
“This is not the end of the appellate process,” Engelmayer said in
his email Friday. “We intend to seek review in the California
Supreme Court because we continue to believe significant legal
errors affected the proceedings and warrant further review.”
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office said it would not
have comment on the decision until the office reviewed it.
Chernyshova’s lawyer David Ring said in an email Friday that she
“has persevered for years to reach this point against the man who
raped her” and thanks the prosecutors and appellate lawyers “for
putting Harvey Weinstein away for good.”
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