Mere minutes after being found guilty on two counts in his rape trial, Harvey Weinstein is already starting an appeal, sources tell Deadline.
An attorney for the much-accused Oscar-winning producer is in the process of filing an appeal right now in New York State Appellate Court, we’re told, minutes after he was found guilty of rape in the third degree and criminal sexual acts in the first degree, two of five total counts.
With the 25-year maximum on the first degree charge, the conviction could see the 67-year-old Weinstein spend the rest of his life in prison. There is a four-year minimum on that conviction.
Weinstein has been remanded to custody by New York Supreme Court Judge James Burke pending sentencing on Wednesday, March 11.
After the verdict was read, defense attorney Donna Rotunno made an unsuccessful last-ditch plea to keep Weinstein free on bail due, in part, to his ill health and pain as a result of an auto accident last summer, but the judge did not grant the request.
The jury’s verdict in New York state Supreme Court brings his seven-week trial to an end in the central criminal case of the #MeToo movement.
A jury poll during Monday’s verdict reading found unanimity, including on the not guilty verdicts returned for two predatory sexual assault charges involving actress Annabella Sciorra.
The first-degree charge stemmed from allegations by former Project Runway production assistant Miriam “Mimi” Haley that Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her at his Soho apartment in 2006.
The third-degree rape count, based on a 2013 rape allegation by Weinstein’s former hairstylist and aspiring actress Jessica Mann, could bring up to four years in prison, though probation on that count is possible.
Weinstein also faces a sexual misconduct trial in Los Angeles involving two women, one of whom – Lauren Marie Young – testified in New York to bolster the Haley and Mann cases.
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