Harvey Weinstein Faces New Felony Sex-Crime Charges in New York
Update: Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to three additional sex crime charges in Manhattan Criminal Court in New York on Monday, CNN reports. The 66-year-old producer previously pleaded not guilty to two counts of rape and one first-degree criminal sex act charge. He is currently out on $1 million cash bail.
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Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has filed a new set of sex crime charges against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, related to a 2006 incident involving a new victim, the third case to result in criminal charges. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the charges include one count of committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree, and two counts of predatory sexual assault, a Class A-II felony which carries a possible life sentence.
“A Manhattan Grand Jury has now indicted Harvey Weinstein on some of the most serious sexual offenses that exist under New York’s Penal Law,” Vance said in a statement. “This indictment is the result of the extraordinary courage exhibited by the survivors who have come forward. Our investigation continues.”
Though rumors about his temper and boundary-crossing sexual proclivities swirled throughout Hollywood for decades, Weinstein was only publicly exposed as a serial sexual predator last year. In October 2017, dual stories in The New York Times and The New Yorker recounted allegations from more than a dozen women that Weinstein sexually harassed, assaulted, or raped them. By the end of October, over 80 women had come forward with similar allegations, with many claiming that Weinstein threatened to impede or destroy their careers if they ever told.
A subsequent New Yorker investigation revealed that Weinstein had sought to prevent the allegations from being publicized by hiring the private-intelligence firm Black Cube to “target, or collect information on, dozens of individuals, and compile psychological profiles that sometimes focused on their personal or sexual histories.” Weinstein has denied trying to suppress publication of the claims against him.
In May, Weinstein was indicted on charges of first- and third-degree rape in relation to a 2013 incident with an accuser who chose to stay anonymous, and first-degree criminal sex act for a 2004 incident in which actress Lucia Evans said Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex. Weinstein’s attorneys disputed the 2013 allegations on the basis that Weinstein and the anonymous accuser had a decade-long romantic relationship which, they claim, continued after the alleged assault at a Manhattan hotel.
In early June, he plead not guilty to those charges, which came with a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison. The NYPD and Manhattan D.A.’s office are continuing to investigate other sexual assault claims, and authorities in London are investigating at least four cases spanning from the mid-1980s up until 2011. The Los Angeles Police Department has also opened an investigation into allegations that Weinstein raped an actress-model at a hotel in 2013.