The verdict in the New York case against Harvey Weinstein is only the beginning of the movie mogul’s prosecution, with separate charges filed against the disgraced producer in Los Angeles.

In the most high-profile trial of the #MeToo movement yet, a New York jury on Monday found Weinstein guilty of third-degree rape for an attack in a New York hotel and guilty of a criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on a former television production assistant. The fallen titan of Hollywood, who was taken away in handcuffs, could face 25 years in prison and will have to register as a sex offender.

Next, Weinstein is due to face a criminal case in LA, which stems from investigations by law enforcement in southern California into eight allegations.

Harvey Weinstein trial: how events unfolded Read more

LA prosecutors have filed charges for two incidents that allegedly occurred within a two-day period. Those charges include forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint, carrying a potential 28-year prison sentence.

It’s not yet clear how LA prosecutors plan to proceed following Monday’s verdict in New York. Weinstein could be immediately brought to California after his 11 March sentencing in New York. He could pursue a plea deal in LA after his guilty verdict in Manhattan, or he could end up facing a second trial, said Laurie Levenson, criminal law professor at Loyola Law School. Either way, it’s an uphill battle for the former movie producer, she said: “When he heads to LA, he’s already a convicted rapist.”

The LA district attorney’s office declined to answer questions on Monday about the next steps in the case, but a representative told the Guardian: “We are definitely proceeding.”

In LA, Weinstein is accused of raping a woman at a hotel after pushing his way inside her room on 18 February 2013. Prosecutors said in court filings that Weinstein and the woman, who has not been publicly identified but has been described by her attorney as an Italian actor, had both attended a film festival that week. When Weinstein showed up at her hotel door, they “talked briefly” before the producer “attacked” her, according to the documents.

He also faces allegations by Lauren Young, a 30-year-old model from Pennsylvania who has already provided an extensive account of her story as a witness in New York.

Young told the jury in New York that a female acquaintance had invited her to the Montage hotel in Beverly Hills on 19 February 2013, and that she hoped to show Weinstein her film script.

She said Weinstein asked the acquaintance and Young to go to his hotel room, where he led her into his suite and then the bathroom. Young alleged that the encounter became coercive and that as she entered the bathroom, the acquaintance closed the door behind her, leaving her with Weinstein. He allegedly turned the shower on and started undressing.

“I stood there in shock. He was already naked at that point. He stepped in front of me when I went to approach the door with his naked body right in front of me. I felt so trapped,” she said.

Young said Weinstein pushed her against the sink, unzipped and pulled down her dress, and groped her as he masturbated. She continued: “I said, ‘no, no, no’, the whole time … He’s carrying on with conversation: ‘This is what all actresses do, to make it.’”

Despite her protests, Weinstein continued to masturbate until he ejaculated on to a towel, she said.

Weinstein and his attorneys have continued to deny allegations of criminal offenses and have vowed to appeal the New York verdict.

Women brace for lawyers’ attacks: ‘They try to humiliate’

If women do testify in an LA trial, they will probably be subject to the same aggressive tactics that Weinstein’s defense team has deployed in New York. Donna Rotunno, Weinstein’s lead defense attorney, engaged in an intense character assassination of all six women who testified, accusing them of lying, having false memories and seeking money. She also repeatedly noted the women’s continued contact with Weinstein after the alleged attacks.

'This is just the beginning': Hollywood reacts to Harvey Weinstein's conviction Read more

Toward the end of the New York trial, Rotunno faced intense scrutiny for telling the New York Times she had never been sexually assaulted “because I would never put myself in that position”.

Advocates for survivors of sexual violence and some of Weinstein’s accusers have slammed his lawyers’ strategies, arguing that the attorneys were perpetuating harmful tropes about sexual assault. Many have noted that it’s common for women to maintain relationships with perpetrators after the attacks.

“The lawyers’ disgusting tactics to discredit and humiliate or try to humiliate the women and make it so that we are not believed, it’s awful,” the actor Rosanna Arquette, one of the first women to share details of Weinstein’s abuse in 2017, told the Guardian. “It exposes the difficulties women face when they come forward and tell the truth about their abusers.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rosanna Arquette speaks outside the Manhattan courthouse. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP

Arquette, who rallied outside the New York courthouse at the start of the trial, said it seemed the brutal cross-examinations of the women were meant to intimidate others so they would not testify in LA or continue to speak out.

“It is a scare tactic to shut women up, to stop further women from coming forward,” she said. “But we will always have the women’s backs … It’s not going to work.”

Zoe Brock, a writer and designer from New Zealand who also spoke up about Weinstein in 2017, said the New York verdict signaled to Weinstein’s lawyers that they “can no longer victim-shame and blame and treat women on the stand as the guilty party and get away with it”, adding: “It proves you can be in a consensual relationship with someone and still be raped … that there is no perfect victim, that in the wake of trauma, we do complicated things.”

Brock added that she was eager to see Weinstein face additional convictions in LA: “I hope every woman who suffered at the hands of Harvey Weinstein gets a rightful verdict, which is guilty, guilty guilty.”

Wagatwe Wanjuki, an LA-based writer and anti-rape activist not involved in the case, said the trial and the treatment of women were another reminder that the criminal justice system was not well suited to address sexual violence and support survivors.

“It really just highlights how hostile it is for victims. Weinstein doesn’t have to testify but the victims do, and they have to be blamed and detail really graphic details of really traumatic incidents,” she said. “This is why few rapists ever get arrested, very few are convicted, and even fewer go to jail … How do we move away from being dependent on a very traumatic process?”

Arquette said that women would not stop speaking out, regardless of what happens: “We will continue to fight for truth and justice, and we are always going to be here supporting all women.”