Harvey Weinstein Surrenders To Police, Faces Sex Assault Charges


Update:

As reported earlier, Harvey Weinstein turned himself into the New York Police Department at the First Precinct in Tribeca this morning to be arrested and face criminal charges stemming from multiple sexual assault allegations.

Weinstein, who is facing years behind bars, is likely looking at first degree and third degree rape charges and a first degree criminal sexual act charge from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. Weinstein arrived amid a throng of media and onlookers gathered at the police station, with NYPD barricades up to separate them from the disgraced Hollywood producer as he was escorted inside. He was not handcuffed.

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As detailed previously, although he has been accused by approximately 80 women, the charges apparently center on three incidents within the Empire State’s statute of limitations: former Boardwalk Empire actor Paz de la Huerta has claimed that Weinstein raped her twice in 2010, and a 2004 occurrence where college student Lucia Evans said the Hollywood mogul compelled her to perform oral sex on him.

As Deadline reports, after being booked at the Lower Manhattan precinct, Weinstein and lawyer Benjamin Brafman will next head to nearby criminal court for an arraignment hearing later today to enter a plea . At the hearing, a predetermined bail of $1 million will be set, and Weinstein’s passport will be handed over to authorities due to flight-risk concerns. As part of the process of the criminal complaint, the producer could be ordered to wear a monitoring device.

“Mr. Weinstein has always maintained that he has never engaged in nonconsensual sexual acts,” Brafman has said repeatedly when defending his client in the court of public opinion. Silent when word of today’s arrest went public Thursday, the attorney will now have to make the case for Weinstein’s innocence in the court of law.

Coming just more than six months since Weinstein’s allegedly vile behavior was first exposed by the New York Times in early October, today’s actions by Cyrus Vance Jr’s Manhattan D.A.’s office are the first criminal charges the Shakespeare In Love producer has been hit with. They come following months of investigation by police in various jurisdictions, districts attorney on both coasts and the Department of Justice.

Amid the revelations of decades of sexual abuse and assault against Weinstein, the fallout has been swift. He was pushed out of the company he co-founded with his brother Robert on October 17 after TWC’s besieged board voted to ratify his dismissal. Among a series of honors rescinded and repudiated by past recipients of his campaign donations, both the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and TV Academy voted to cast out the once dominating Weinstein.

More recently, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has been looking into Weinstein’s actions. They opened a sex-crimes investigation to probe whether the producer crossed state lines with the intent of committing an assault in New York and violated laws to prevent sex trafficking.

Weinstein is being investigated by the LAPD, who sent three cases to the L.A. County D.A. on February 8. As UK police continue their probe, the Beverly Hills Police passed two cases of sexual assault to Jackie Lacey’s office on January 2. There are also nearly a dozen lawsuits filed in the courts against Weinstein from some of the dozens and dozens of women who have gone public in the past several months with their allegations of assault or harassment by the producer.

Or, all of the above summarized:

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EARLIER

After months of waiting, disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has turned himself in to the police to be charged with rape on Friday in New York City. Live feed from New York below:


Manhattan prosecutors are expected to charge the former Weinstein Company executive with first-degree and third-degree rape in one case, and a first-degree sex act in a second case.

As we reported on Thursday, NBC revealed that a state grand jury is convening in Manhattan in connection with the multiple sex abuse allegations which originated in New York, according to sources familiar with the case. This as simultaneously federal prosecutors have opened their own sex crimes case.

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WNBC New York reports witnesses are being called and testimony is underway :

A grand jury in New York has been convened and witnesses are being called in connection with sex abuse allegations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein, several sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

The sources say that a state grand jury in Manhattan will hear evidence in the Weinstein case which is being presented with witness testimony and other evidence.

Since the New York Times first published explosive allegations of sexual assault based on interviews with multiple of his celebrity female victims, more than 60 women have accused the 65-year old movie mogul of sexual misconduct,though it remains unclear how many have gone to the police. Since then Weinstein has been dropped by his own studio, Miramax, which he co-founded and is now facing ongoing criminal investigations in multiple US jurisdictions as well as in London and France.

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In the meantime, even close associates and co-producers on Weinstein’s multiple blockbuster productions over the years have lately come forward to say “everybody fucking knew” what’s been described as “certain pattern of overly-aggressive behavior that was rather dreadful.” Celebrities including Rose McGowen, Ashley Judd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Uma Thurman and Salma Hayek have accused Weinstein of various improprieties, from unwanted advances to flat-out rape.

A spokesperson for the Manhattan D.A.’s office acknowledged to NBC that the case is “an advanced stage.” Weinstein’s team of attorneys — no doubt the best that his net worth of about $150 million can buy — have denied any claim of non-consensual sex.

But as NBC reports further, “The NYPD for months has been calling for Weinstein’s arrest, saying they had enough evidence to charge him in the alleged sexual abuse of Paz de la Huerta and Lucia Evans” — the likely subjects of the New York state grand jury proceedings.

And as The Hill explains , though two New York Police officials publicly stated Wednesday the NYPD is ready to arrest the former Hollywood producer , it is “just waiting for approval from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., whose office has been criticized for not previously charging Weinstein after allegations were brought against him in 2015.”

Huerta is the “Boardwalk Empire” actress who told CBS News in a November interview she was first raped in October 2010 after Weinstein gave her a ride home from a party – after which the Hollywood mogul insisted on having a drink in her apartment when he forced himself on her. She said he raped her again in December 2010 after coming to her apartment . She had been drinking and was not in a condition to give consent, the actress said in the interview.

Lucia Evans, then a college student and aspiring actress, alleged that Weinstein forced her to perform oral sex on him inside his Tribeca office in 2004 — one of the instances which has long been known to be playing a key role in the NYPD’s investigation .

Crucially, New York State has no statute of limitations on rape and criminal sexual acts — its legal term for forced oral or anal intercourse. Rape in the first degree carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison.

And according to a new WSJ report federal investigators have simultaneously initiated a criminal probe into whether Weinstein “lured or induced any women to travel across state lines for the purpose of committing a sex crime,” as part of their inquiry. The WSJ reports further that the federal probe “comes amid frustration among some law-enforcement officials that local prosecutors haven’t brought charges.”

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Meanwhile, actress Gwyneth Paltrow has the same day that news of state and federal proceedings hit headlines revealed new stunning details of an altercation between her then-boyfriend Brad Pitt and Harvey Weinstein after Paltrow told Pittshe was sexually harassed by the powerful Miramax co-founder in the 1990’s.

“We had one instance in a hotel room where he [Weinstein] made a pass at me,” Paltrow told Stern . “It was out of the blue and I’ll tell you, I had been having the most incredible experience at Miramax,” and said further she was “blind-sided” by the incident. “I was a kid, I was signed up, I was petrified,” she said of the encounter.

She shared the details during an interview on Sirius XM’s The Howard Stern Show , revealing that as she and Pitt attended an opening night Broadway show of Hamlet in 1995, Pitt threw Weinstein against a wall and said: ‘If you ever make her feel uncomfortable again, I’ll kill you.’ Or something like that.”

“It was like the equivalent of throwing [Weinstein] against the wall, you know, energetically,” Paltrow explained of Pitt’s intervention. “It was so fantastic,” she said. “What he did was he leveraged his fame and power to protect me at a time when I didn’t have fame or power yet.” And added, “He’s the best.”



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