JAKARTA - Renowned Hollywood executive producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison by a New York court on Wednesday, March 11, on charges of rape and molestation. This case only got a bright spot after three years of wrestling between the victims and Weinstein. The producer listened to his verdict in a wheelchair with handcuffs.
The long road haunts this process. The story begins in October 2017 when the New York Times media wrote about the sexual harassment perpetrated by Harvey Weinstein. He is known as a producer of popular films such as The King's Speech, Django Unchained, Pulp Fiction as well as distributing foreign language films to the international community, one of which is Studio Ghibli's Princess Mononoke.
At that time the media wrote, actress Rose McGowan and Ashley Judd were some of the artists who had voiced about this incident. They were asked to give Weinstein a massage and watch him naked. In exchange, Weinstein will make their career in the entertainment industry increase. After leaving The Weinstein Company, more and more women have spoken out about this harassment.
Romola Garai, Asia Argento, Lucia Stoller, Mira Sorvino, Gwyneth Paltrow, Angelina Jolie and 13 other women also spoke about those who had been abused. Jolie even called it a bad experience throughout her youth. Even though many started to speak up, Weinstein through his representatives said it was all untrue.
Weinstein's wife at the time, Georgina Chapman divorced her husband on October 10, 2017 amidst the chaotic case. Not stopping, various public figures such as Cara Delevingne and Rose McGowan said Weinstein was verbally abusing. His former assistant, Lisa Rose, also agreed that the producer had taken her to another room for a massage.
The number of victims also increased, namely Lysette Anythony, Lauren Holly, Lena Headey, Lupita Nyong'O, and Brit Marling telling how Weinstein approached them. Some of them are invited to go through a massage session and go to the hotel room. There are several names that say Weinstein raped her in 1992.
Still in October 2017, Weinstein's personal chauffeur began to open his voice to a French television if he often escorted actresses who had finished meeting with the producers and entertained them. Channing Tatum, who was currently producing a film about child abuse, immediately canceled the production process because the film was made by The Weinstein Company.
Not only art workers in front of the screen, behind the scenes also feel the same way. Mimi Haleyi said Weinstein had oral sex in front of her in 2006. It was also shared by actresses Dominique Huett and Natassia Malthe.
Continuing from there, actress Annabella Sciorra admitted to being raped in 1990, Daryl Hannah was forced into a hotel room and harassed during the promotion of the film Kill Bill. Paz de la Huerta claimed to have been raped twice while in New York in 2010. Kadian Noble, Salma Hayek, and Uma Thurman also began to share experiences with Weinstein.
He turned himself in on May 25, 2018 and was found guilty of sexual harassment against only two women. The next day, he was declared free on a bail of 1 billion United States dollars. He agreed to be put on a GPS tracker and hand over his passport.
It didn't stop there, several women who wished to remain anonymous sued Weinstein for sexual harassment in New York. But not long after, he was found not guilty of the case that happened to him. Some of his employees began giving exclusive statements. One of them admitted that he had to wear two-layer tights.
In 2019, Weinstein began to get sick and had to undergo a vein tube surgery so he attended court proceedings wearing a walker. Until one day, Kaja Sokola admitted to the public that he was sexually assaulted by Weinstein when he was 16 years old. He had opened his voice when the case first broke out but as anonymous. He spoke out publicly because he thought the settlement of this case was unfair.
2020 begins when Weinstein returns to court proceedings in which Rose McGowan and Rosanna Arquette staged an outdoor protest. Apart from them, actresses Annabella Sciorra and Jessica Mann spoke out for the first time about the harassment by the producer. But the incident that happened to Sciorra occurred in 1990 so that the case would have expired if it was brought to court.
Weinstein's lawyer, James Burke, had asked for a five-year sentence because he saw Weinstein's achievements so far. However, Weinstein still rejected the demands made by the dozens of women who were his victims.
On February 24, 2020, a judge found Weinstein guilty of a sexual crime committed into first- and third-degree rape. The producer faces up to 25 years in prison. And on March 11, 2020, Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison for all of his cases.
Various evidences were issued to substantiate the charges against Weinstein, one of which was the question of whether he had ever harassed Jennifer Aniston. But he was the one who said Aniston should have been killed. He also asked influential people like Jeff Bezos to save him. This case was the beginning of the #MeToo hashtag in the United States.
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