Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles, California court Wednesday, on new sex crime charges, BBC reported.
The latest charges against the embattled producer are allegations that he sexually abused five women in California, and he is thus facing 11 counts of sexual assault. However, Weinstein who appeared in court, in a wheelchair on Wednesday pleaded not guilty, BBC reported.
Weinstein, 69, is already serving a 23-year prison sentence for rape and sexual assault on two women in New York, from where he was extradited to Los Angeles. If he’s convicted in Los Angeles for the same charges he faced in New York, the producer risks a cumulative 140-year prison sentence, Yahoo News Canada reported.
The crimes for which he will be tried in Los Angeles allegedly occurred between 2004 and 2013 in hotels in California, which the producer habitually used at film industry events, particularly during Oscars week, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and seven other sexual assault counts in a Los Angeles courtroom Wednesday. Weinstein has already been convicted in New York, where he was serving a 23-year prison term.https://t.co/UhqZcMQ6Vh
— The Associated Press (@AP) July 21, 2021
Weinstein was sentenced in March last year to 23 years in prison for raping a production assistant in 2006 and an actress in 2013. (RELATED: Harvey Weinstein Appeals Sex Crimes Conviction, Claims Judge ‘Woefully Neglected’ Fair Trial)
In January of this year, the producer was forced to pay $17 million in compensation to the women who accused him of the crimes of sexual abuse for which he was convicted, the New York Times reported.