Harvey Weinstein has been charged with four counts of sexual assault in Los Angeles County, deepening the legal peril faced by the fallen Hollywood mogul as his trial on similar charges in New York City is set to begin this month.
The charges stem from accusations brought by a pair of women who say Weinstein attacked them in hotels in Los Angeles and Beverly Hills in 2013, Dist. Atty. Jackie Lacy said during a downtown news conference Monday morning.
“We believe the evidence will show that the defendant used his power and influence to gain access to his victims and then commit crimes against them,” Lacey said in a statement. “I want to commend the victims who have come forward and bravely recounted what happened to them.”
Weinstein has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. Donna Rotunno, his defense attorney in the New York case, declined to comment on the Los Angeles County case. His lawyers in Southern California could not immediately be reached for comment.
It was not immediately clear how, or if, the announcement of charges in L.A. County would affect the New York case. Lacey suggested the Manhattan trial would proceed first. A spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment.
The fallen mogul will be charged with forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, sexual penetration by use of force and sexual battery by restraint, prosecutors said in a statement. Neither victim has been identified publicly. One woman is among the six victims expected to testify against Weinstein in the New York trial, prosecutors said.
The other L.A. County accuser is a former model and actress who described the alleged assault to The Times in 2017, according to her attorney, David Ring.
She said the first assault took place at the Mr. C Beverly Hills hotel in February 2013, after she met Weinstein briefly at the Los Angeles Italia Film, Fashion and Art Fest.
“Once inside, he asked me questions about myself, but soon became very aggressive and demanding and kept asking to see me naked,” she previously told The Times.
The woman said that she showed Weinstein pictures of her children as she cried and begged him to go away, but he continued to claw at her.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Los Angeles Times